MON POD @SpenceChecketts on NFL Kickoff, No. 20 Utes v WYO, 2-0 Cougs, USMNT + more

NFL Kickoff, No. 20 Utes v WYO, 2-0 Cougs, USMNT + more

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Monday afternoon, eight minutes past the hour and two o'clock.
Gorgeous day, beautiful, beautiful day outside.

Speaker 2 (00:06):
September is upon us.

Speaker 1 (00:08):
Feels a little bit fall ish, felt a little bit
follish over the weekend. It's about eighty five degrees in
sunny here in downtown Salt Lake City, Utah. And as
it is every single day, it's good to have you
along for the rides, fence check. It's behind the mic
porta Larson behind the glass today producing the program, booking
the program.

Speaker 2 (00:24):
Happy Monday.

Speaker 1 (00:25):
I hope you had a fantastic weekend full of football,
maybe a little outdoor activity as the weather will turn
at some point, but a beautiful Monday after a great weekend,
and I appreciate you making us a part of your day,
a lot to do. The first week of pro football
will end in about well, the last game of the
first weekend is what I should say, will start.

Speaker 2 (00:46):
In about three hours and.

Speaker 1 (00:47):
Fifty one minutes Monday Night football, the Vikings and the Bears.

Speaker 2 (00:51):
Don't forget.

Speaker 1 (00:52):
You can hear that game on our radio station after
we're done. A miraculous comeback in Western New York last night,
as Josh Allen and the Buffalo Bill Stunts, Lamar Jackson,
the Baltimore Ravens.

Speaker 2 (01:03):
A great, great week one in the NFL.

Speaker 1 (01:06):
We'll come to a close tonight, so we'll talk some
pro football and the show today started with that Thursday
night tilt where the Cowboys took the Eagles all the
way down the stretch. And now an interesting game tonight
with some questions at quarterback. It'll be the first time
we've seen JJ McCarthy under center for the Vikings, and
what will year two for Caleb Williams under Ben Johnson
looked like Detroit certainly looked like they missed Ben Johnson.

(01:28):
Yesterday we saw the debut of Michaeh. Parsons for the Packers.
Aaron Rodgers went back to MetLife and remembered how to
play quarterback, which as a Jets fan is always fun.
And you know, some underwhelming performances defense kind of rude
the day up until last night when both those two
offenses went crazy. The Niners are in some trouble as
Juwan Jennings and George Kittle had to leave the game,

(01:51):
of course already without Brandon Ayuk. So a lot of
pro football in the show today, and of course we
will talk youths. Of course, we will talk Cooper's of tours.
Of course we will talk college football. Sneaky good weekend
of college football took place with only one game between
two ranked teams, and that was Oklahoma and Michigan. Is

(02:11):
Oklahoma football back? Did they announce their arrival on the scene.
We'll get into it. Not a great weekend for the
Big Twelve if you're a Big Twelve shill, which I'm not.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Not a great weekend for the conference, but.

Speaker 1 (02:23):
A good weekend for Utah, good weekend for BYU. Rough
trip down to College Station for Brocko, Mennahall and the Aggies,
but that was to be expected. And we'll get you
ready for Week three as Utah will try to continue
their winning ways up and Laramie and the Porter Larson
Bowl at war Memorial Stadium. BYU's on a buye. It's
the dumbest thing week three by like, what are we doing?

(02:44):
Byus on a buy But they took are of Stanford
relatively easily. Some offensive issues in the red zone for
the Cougars, but.

Speaker 2 (02:51):
That defense is fast.

Speaker 1 (02:53):
And physical and we'll keep them in games all year long.
We got Texas A and M and Notre Dame Dame
Stadium in Indiana coming up. Florida got got over the weekend.
They're going to be down at Baton Rouge for the
world's biggest cocktail party. I've been to that game. It's
the SEC matchup that I've experienced. It is a wild,
wild thing down there. So we've got a good slate

(03:15):
of college football coming up. South Florida jumps into the
top twenty after their great start the season, and they're
down in Miami at hard Rock Stadium to take on
the Hurricanes. So I've got some good games to preview. Obviously,
a lot of games to look back on. Georgia Tennessee
in Knoxville at Rocky Top coming up as well. So
a good week of college football comes your way. Obviously,

(03:36):
a lot of pro college football that will dominate about
ninety percent of our show today. We've got some other
things we're keeping our eye on. The rookies report this
week for the Utah Mammoth, believe it or not, and
in ten days the Vets will report.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
So hockey is almost back upon us.

Speaker 1 (03:50):
It is the quietest of periods in pro basketball, but
lowry marketing continues to play well in EuroBasket.

Speaker 2 (03:56):
Not a lot of jazz news as of now.

Speaker 1 (03:58):
RSL after a three month break, or at least that's
how it feels, are back in action. Coming up on
Saturday seven thirty Kick America First Field. It's sporting Kansas City.
Diego Luna got the start for the US men's national team,
but they got their asses kicked because that's kind of
what they do. It's a little soccer on the program
as well, but mostly football.

Speaker 2 (04:16):
Good guest list on a Monday, we'll.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
Bring in Thor Nisterer right out the top to talks
and pro football.

Speaker 2 (04:22):
I always enjoy catching up with Thor.

Speaker 1 (04:23):
Really good football football mind, our AP top twenty five
voter and the man who covers the University of Utah
for KSL, Josh Furlong. We'll skip will stop by today.
Former Utah quarterback Scott Mitchell slated to join us on
the show.

Speaker 2 (04:37):
Brian Dunseth, who has been.

Speaker 1 (04:38):
On the call for the US men's national team, part
of the studio crew.

Speaker 2 (04:42):
We'll roll in.

Speaker 1 (04:42):
We'll see what Donny has to say about the US
men's national team performance. Diego Luna and Can Arsl make
a run down the stretch to make the postseason in
Major League Soccer. And then, as we do every Monday
during the college football season, we let you hear from
the head coach of the Utes, Kyle Whittingham.

Speaker 2 (05:00):
If you missed his pressure from.

Speaker 1 (05:01):
Earlier today, Saturday felt like a perfect Kyle Winningham game.
No anxiety at all about the outcome. They'll worry about
whether or not you're gonna get the win. But enough
things kind of popped up as far as maybe some
mental errors and miscues for the coaching staff to hone
in on prior to Wyoming this weekend, but most importantly
prior to conference play when Texas Tech and Fox Big

(05:22):
Noon we're rolling to town for that game. Friends of
the program, well, friend of the program Gus Johnson. We're
going to try to get Gus on over the next
couple of weeks prior to the Texas Tech game, and
hopefully friend of the program Joe Klatt. We'll effort Joe
Clatt as well as Fox, their number one team will
be here in Salt Lake City. Some exciting news that

(05:42):
dropped earlier today, So yeah, stay tuned for that. Let's
you hear from coach went on the program as well,
so Thorne Eystrom Josh for Along, Scott Mitchell, Brian Dunseeth,
little Kyle Whittingham, sound me, spence check. It's all of you,
the great listeners. Happy Monday. Hope you had a great weekend.
Thanks for making us a part of your Monday afternoon.
Hopefully off to a great start to the work week.

(06:03):
And that young man who was on the sideline on Saturday,
Yeah for Utah cal Poly.

Speaker 2 (06:09):
How was it man?

Speaker 3 (06:09):
I was?

Speaker 1 (06:10):
I was in the I was in the stadium as
a spectator. Oh really, I was it for you?

Speaker 3 (06:14):
Down?

Speaker 4 (06:14):
I sure?

Speaker 1 (06:15):
Down on the sideline in the ken Garth zone. No,
I was actually in the nosebleeds. I didn't have good seats.
You were with the people. No, I was actually in
the sweet I thought. But anyway, how was it was
it down on the sideline?

Speaker 4 (06:25):
It was good.

Speaker 5 (06:26):
There was some rain, so I did spend some time
with the press box just to be clear.

Speaker 2 (06:31):
But it was.

Speaker 5 (06:31):
It was awesome, a good good fall Saturday. It felt
a little bit like fall early on and uh, Utah
looked clean, right, There's there's still some things to clean up.
But I said, going into the show and Trevor and
I talked about it, I didn't care if it was
thirty seven to zero or seventy to ten. Right, if
you execute, if you get out of there clean, if

(06:52):
you get out of their relatively healthy. That is the
goal in those FCSFBS matchups, and that's.

Speaker 2 (06:57):
That's what you got.

Speaker 5 (06:58):
And Utah after two weeks weeks is averaging a touch
over five hundred yards per game, having allowed one hundred
yard rusher. You know, it's it's what they want to
look like. Now we'll learn a lot more in a
couple of weeks against Texas Tech and we'll learn a
little bit more. I think this weekend in Laramie.

Speaker 2 (07:17):
Are you excited for the Porter Larsen Bowl?

Speaker 3 (07:19):
Yes?

Speaker 2 (07:19):
Are you heading up? I'm going to be there. You
have to, you have no choice. It's branded now.

Speaker 5 (07:23):
Yeah, I'm definitely gonna be there. Always fun to see
some football in Laramie. I've never seen a Utah Wyoming game,
and Larami we've seen him here in Salt Lake, so
I am. I'm looking forward to that and I like
I like that country, so it'll be it'll be fun.

Speaker 2 (07:39):
There you go.

Speaker 1 (07:40):
So Utah Wyoming coming up this weekend. It is a
six o'clock kick. The TV coverage is CBS Sports Network
and obviously is your home. With the utes, you can
hear the game on our station. Porter will get things
going with pregame coming up at two o'clock on Saturday,
so set your alarm and make sure you're listening in
for the pregame covers, and of course Bill Scott and
Slot Live and Laramie. It is Utah, Wyoming, trying to

(08:03):
continue this hot start. All right, our first guest, we're
gonna do some pro football out of the gates. Monday
Night Football just about three hours forty five minutes away
between the Vikings and the Bears. We are your home
of the biggest and best football games, whether it's college
or pro in the market, So make sure to stay
tuned after we say good night for Monday Night Football,
before we catch up with Thor on a Monday afternoon.

(08:23):
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Speaker 6 (08:27):
Welcome to the Drive with Spence check its on Utah's
number one Sports talk now into the studios of ESPN
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Speaker 2 (09:19):
It's good to be right.

Speaker 1 (09:21):
They've given you two max discounts so far that both
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Speaker 2 (09:41):
Where it is good to be right, all right.

Speaker 1 (09:44):
I don't know that you could ask for a better
start as it pertains to our local football scene, and
certainly the University of Utah climbs in the ap pole
five spots after curb stomping cal Poly sixty three to nine,
like we told you they would. I think the final
spread was something like forty four point five points Utah covers.
It was a low anxiety Saturday at riysecl Stadium, certainly

(10:07):
a great day for a lot of different reasons. Number one,
Utah football is back home. Opener is always a really
exciting time up on campus. So hopefully you walked around
the tailgate, said a load of some people. Hopefully stopped
by our tailgate, the ESPN seven hundred VIP tailgate up
there on guardsmen. So just simply to have Utah football
back is obviously a great day. And then of course

(10:28):
the honoring of coach Mack at halftime. And we talked
to a lot of guests last week about what Ron
McBride means to not just Utah football, but our community.

Speaker 2 (10:37):
It was a special, special moment.

Speaker 1 (10:39):
You could tell Coach Mack was very touched and very
well deserved to have that go down. As for the game,
and you're gonna hear from Coach Witt coming up in
the four o'clock hour, and he touches on several of
the dynamics as it pertains to how it played out.

Speaker 2 (10:54):
Number one mission accomplished.

Speaker 1 (10:55):
Okay, So I've heard a lot of people kind of
hone in on some of the mental errors.

Speaker 2 (11:00):
There were some of those.

Speaker 1 (11:01):
I'm not saying there's not I just think that this
is one of the reasons why I hate these games.

Speaker 2 (11:06):
Okay, if you listen to the show. First of all,
thank you, hello, how are you?

Speaker 1 (11:09):
Second of all, for years and years and years, I
have railed against fbsfcs. I just think it's really difficult
for young people, and we always forget that these are kids.
At the end of the day, they're college kids. After
going to the Rose Bowl and look, UCLA got trounce.
They made it a little interesting down the stretch, but
one point they were getting run off the field in

(11:31):
Vegas against UNLV.

Speaker 2 (11:33):
I just don't think they're very good. I think they stink.

Speaker 1 (11:35):
I'm not sure that that was a great first opponent
for Utah, but it was the Rose Bowl. It was
late back East, but primetime out west, and it was
on Fox, and there was all of this conversation about
Nico transferring and UCLA, you know, being a big ten opponent,
and you go to the Rose Bowl, you answer every
question we had at least for one game, and you

(11:58):
absolutely dump truck you forty three to ten. I just
think it's human nature to have a difficult time to
get up for cal Poly.

Speaker 2 (12:06):
With all due respect, and.

Speaker 1 (12:07):
I'm not making excuses for anything at all, but I
just felt like Saturday, certainly for coach Wit, probably went
about as well as you could expect.

Speaker 2 (12:18):
There was never any doubt about the result.

Speaker 1 (12:21):
It was never uncomfortable, not for a moment, not even
at the beginning. It was another opening drive touchdown, two
for two, waig Sean with a reception and took it
to the house. And yeah, there were some penalties here
or there. There were some mental lapses on defense where
some players were able to get behind the defense and
the quarterback just couldn't find them, you know, And so

(12:41):
if you're Kyle Whittingham, if you're Morgan Scaley, if you're
Jason Beck, you can walk away from that game feeling
good about where you're at, with plenty of things on
tape that you can coach these young men up to
improve upon.

Speaker 2 (12:53):
And I don't think that's a bad thing.

Speaker 1 (12:55):
I think a lot of people were unnecessarily over reactionary
and about a couple of different dynamics. You know, ultimately,
the kid under center continues to look really dynamic. There
are some moments where he looks a little hesitant in
the pocket to just let it loose. Remember we talked
all off season about his average throw game performance a

(13:16):
year ago in New Mexico, and there's still some look.
He had three touchdowns, you know, an ultimately completion rate
was good seventeen of twenty three one ninety two.

Speaker 2 (13:24):
I do not want to sound nitpicky.

Speaker 7 (13:26):
I'm not.

Speaker 1 (13:26):
I'm actually being the opposite of that. But you know,
if we are honest about the progress from week one
to week two, did we see everything that we wanted
to see? Probably not, But you're not going to check
every box every single week. This football team is I
think better than most people nationally thought they would be
I am always one that is more curious as to

(13:46):
observe than to lay judgment after a couple of weeks. Observation,
not conclusion is what I always say as a bertains
to the early part of the college football season.

Speaker 2 (13:55):
And I always just keep in mind the human nature
of young people.

Speaker 1 (13:59):
I was a young person, you were too, to just
remain focused week in and week out and continue to
improve and prepare the way you need to. And I
just think the human nature the thing takes over at times,
and certainly in this day and age where you cannot
insulate these players from any information, like they knew that
they were a massive favorite over a lesser opponent, and

(14:21):
to keep that focus up. Certainly, if you're a coach,
you want to make sure that your players are doing
just that. But I think it's entirely understandable if there
was a little bit of a Okay, we just trounce
UCLA at the Rose Bowl. Maybe we're reading our own
articles a little bit, and maybe we're understanding that this
team coming into rise Ecles on Saturday will not present
a very stiff challenge at all, and I think that

(14:43):
naturally will lead to a few human error moments here
or there, which we saw on Saturday for Utah football.
But ultimately, through two games, they look better than I
thought they were going to And the takeaway continues to
be the kid under center, Devin is really really special.

Speaker 2 (14:58):
He's really really fun.

Speaker 1 (14:59):
I do there are a couple of moments and you know,
Porter and Sean were down on the sidelines and if
you go down on the sideline, and Trevor Riley has
talked about this on the show, it's pretty stark when
you look at just the difference in size and physicality
in the trenches.

Speaker 2 (15:16):
Utah's offensive line. We know how good they are.

Speaker 1 (15:19):
They're really really big, like big, strong and tall. And
Devin I remember the first time I shook Devin Sanda,
I was like, dude, he's my size, Like he is
not a very tall quarterback. And there are some moments
where just the size of the offensive line is a
little bit problematic for Devin to see over right, And
that's why you want your quarterback to be six two
sixty three, if you had your druthers and if everything

(15:42):
was perfect, And I just wonder as we move forward
into conference play, I don't think we're gonna learn anything
again about Utah on Saturday against Wyoming. I don't want
to be somebody that is disrespectful of another program, but
I just went to anticipate this Saturday feeling a lot
like last Saturday.

Speaker 2 (16:00):
Now Wyomings.

Speaker 1 (16:01):
So far they've won a couple of games, but it
was Akron in Northern Iowa, all due respect, so they're
two and zero right but hopefully on Saturday it's a
similar script where by halftime this essentially is over.

Speaker 2 (16:14):
You can get the starters on ice.

Speaker 1 (16:16):
You know, you can get Devin on the sideline and
make sure that he's healthy because Texas Tech so far
has lived up to the billion and that will be
your conference opener here at rice Eco Stadium with Fox
Big Noon in town and of course Gus Johnson in
front of the show and potentially Joel Klatt. Hopefully he
will become a friend of the show. We've tried to
get Joel on a couple of different times. Texas Tech

(16:36):
hasn't played anybody, but they've hung sixty seven and sixty
two in their first two games Arkansas Pine Bluff and
Kent State. Their final non con game will be against
Oregon State, who if you haven't been paying attention, is
not a very good football team.

Speaker 2 (16:48):
They have not won so far this year.

Speaker 1 (16:50):
They are zero to two in the Pac Twelve against
Calan Fresno. So but Texas Tech so far looks the
part right and so I still will point to that
game as the day I'm looking forward to the most
to have a more accurate Lipnis test on who Utah
football actually is as as opposed to continue to guest
based off of some subpar competition.

Speaker 2 (17:12):
Finally, before we.

Speaker 1 (17:13):
Catch a break, if you're a youth fan and you
want your team to compete in conference play this year
and potentially win a conference championship, you should be pretty
excited at the landscape of the Big Twelve this year.
I don't think there are any elite teams unless we're
talking Utah and maybe BYU. TCU is pretty solid. Again,

(17:33):
Tech has looked the part so far. But Arizona State
goes to Starkville and they get got by one of
the worst teams in the SEC. Iowa State tried to
give it back to Iowa a couple of times, but
at least they got the win. Baylor with a nice
win on the road against SMU are really entertaining game.
Maszoo hung forty two on Kansas and in the non
con opportunities over the weekend the Big two I was

(17:53):
three and four. An army goes to k State and
beats them. It's probably time to change the way we
talked about k State. You know, so far Utah BYU,
you know I would throw I was stating in there,
I think you have to TCU. Baylor's already suffered a loss,
like there's no reason through two weeks that you shouldn't

(18:13):
feel confident about Utah's ability to have something to say
about this conference championship this season. All right, we'll get
back to Utah football. We got Josh for along, Scott Mitchell.
We're gonna let you hear from Wit later on as well.
But Monday night football tonight Vikings Bears will culminate what
was a great weekend in the world of the NFL.
So we'll do some pro football right off the top
with our buddy thor Nystrom. All right, show rolling along today,

(18:36):
Excited to welcome in my next guest, Jeff Rode from
my hearing centers.

Speaker 2 (18:40):
Jeff, how are you, sir?

Speaker 8 (18:41):
Doing great? Thanks Spencer, I.

Speaker 1 (18:43):
Appreciate the time. Thanks for coming into studio. So let's
just start with what you want our listeners to know.
Why should they.

Speaker 2 (18:48):
Choose my hearing center.

Speaker 9 (18:50):
Well, we have the best technology when it comes to
state of the art equipment and testing procedures to check
your hearing and see if there's a problem. And we've
got great people that are licensed and trained to make
sure that they're checking everything and fitting a solution that's
individual to your needs.

Speaker 1 (19:11):
We've got ten locations across the LOSATCH front to serve
your hearing healthcare needs. Talk about the technology a little
bit more specifically as far as what our listeners can
expect when they come into the spot that get their
comprehensive evaluation.

Speaker 2 (19:25):
Talk about that technology a little bit more, Jeff.

Speaker 9 (19:28):
Well, hearing devices can be programmed to meet the specific
needs of the wearer. And so what we do when
we test you is we go through a complete testing
program that determines first of all how well you're hearing sounds,
but then also how well are you hearing speech. And
it will see as a range of speech where you're

(19:52):
missing things, where you're missing certain sounds, and then that
allows us to make sure that when we fit you
with a proper hearing device that it is going to
do the things that you specifically need. It's not going
to blast something in your ear if you've got good
hearing at that frequency. If you don't have good hearing

(20:12):
in a certain frequency, that's where it's going to help
you out.

Speaker 1 (20:15):
Now, what is the special offer, Jeff, you have for
our listeners to give you a call today?

Speaker 9 (20:19):
Yeah, we want to have you come in and kind
of test drive this new bcet ix device from Signia.
We've got a great bit of technology that is brand
new on the market. It's an amazing device and we
want you to want your folks to come in and
try it out see what they think.

Speaker 2 (20:40):
So here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (20:41):
My Hearing Centers is looking for fifty ESPN listeners with
problems hearing to take part in a thirty day challenge
to evaluate the newly released Signia bctix. Give them a
call today to schedule an appointment. It's eight oh one
seven oh one one nine two four.

Speaker 2 (20:58):
So I've been.

Speaker 1 (20:58):
Doing this job for twenty plus years, full time about
twenty and if you mix in my part time, about
twenty three overall. And I don't know that I've ever
been more conflicted or confused about whether or not I
can actually go on air with something. The term is
not a swear word. It's nothing that we would get
in trouble for. You know what, I'm gonna workshop this

(21:20):
before I actually I just got an email with some
odds for NFL games coming up this weekend, and there's
a dynamic that you can bet upon.

Speaker 2 (21:30):
That has nothing to do with the game. I'll just
say this.

Speaker 1 (21:33):
It started in the WNBA as it pertains to fans
throwing this item on the court, and then during Week
one in Pro football, two of these items were thrown
onto the field. And now you can bet as to
you know what, I'll say it like this. You can
now bet as to whether or not this weekend and
an adult toy of some sort will be thrown on

(21:56):
the field for a pro football game.

Speaker 5 (21:57):
And someone's gonna bet on that and then go do it,
so you know, you know what, that's where we're genius.

Speaker 1 (22:04):
I'm gonna lay the odds down. I'm gonna fly you
to Vegas. You're gonna throw one on the field.

Speaker 5 (22:07):
I mean, I probably won't be doing sports radio if
I get caught doing that, But you know, if you
lay big enough odds down and give me a percentage.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
Sure, we have lost the plot, man, we have absolutely
lost the plot. Anyway, moving on our next guest, we
will not discuss this with, but we will talk NFL
football with one of our favorites, Thor Nystrom back on
the program on a Monday thor Happy Monday, Thor Happy
Monday Man.

Speaker 2 (22:29):
How we doing?

Speaker 10 (22:31):
Thanks? Thanks, guys, I'm doing great. How are you guys doing.

Speaker 2 (22:33):
We're good, We're good. I gotta start with last night.

Speaker 1 (22:36):
I mean, it was a great, great slate during Week one,
hoping for more tonight in Chicago. Defense is kind of
rude the day and then those two offenses just punch
for punch. I am still in awe after watching what
Josh Allen did to bring the Bills back for senat football.
What were your takeaways as the Bills beat the Ravens
forty one to forty.

Speaker 10 (22:57):
It was it was one of the better regular season
games you'll ever see. And what a surprise, what a
fun surprise to open up the Sunday Night football of
Week one. Just an absolutely incredible game in the back
and forth and obviously Buffalo roaring back at the end.

Speaker 3 (23:11):
It was.

Speaker 10 (23:11):
It was just really fun, really really great theater and
the fact that you know, like I said, they were
just sitting there on Week one, you're just happy that
football is back. And to get a game that legitimately
was AFC Championship game worthy quality level was was pretty
pretty special. For the very first game, it was really cool.

Speaker 1 (23:30):
Was that an indictment overall, or I should say, at
all on the Ravens or is that more of just
walking away shaking your head at the MVP doing what
he does.

Speaker 10 (23:40):
I think I think it's more the latter. You know,
both teams obviously played really good. I think if there's
anything to question or to quibble there, it's that decision
that the Ravens made when they were fourth and three
at their own forty with what a minute and thirty
seconds left, and if you get a first down, the
game's over. But then you you put the bills right

(24:01):
there at field goal range. If you don't make it,
that was a fascinating decision. Then it seemed like the
Ravens pretty quickly decided to punt, a decision that they
obviously now regret. Sort of curious, you know, everything that
went into that, and if if Harbaugh would do the
same thing in the future. Now that he's sort of
seen that situation. But I think that's the one thing

(24:21):
to think about there. But yeah, just as far as
the teams and the players, it just really good football
being played.

Speaker 1 (24:28):
Is there a player in the league that's better at
their craft than Josh Allen is right now?

Speaker 10 (24:33):
Oh, guys, I mean if there is, Lamar Jackson has
been the last couple of years, it's been, you know,
those two guys sort of divving up the m vps.
But yeah, Alan, if you're playing, if he playing the
way that he was last night, it's going to be
incredibly difficult to beat the Bill. It's like the arm
strength on that guy and the arm talent you it

(24:53):
is so rare, and I'm talking about in NFL history.
And then of course the ability for him to move
around manufacturer yards with his legs when the coverage is
really good, he can just steal seven yards and then
just scurry out of balance. It's a player who is
dang near impossible to defend when he is on, and

(25:13):
he obviously was last night, just absolutely lights out.

Speaker 1 (25:17):
Does he have enough around him to it feels like,
and I used to say this about Aaron Rodgers for years.
I always thought Aaron was just too good to only
win one super Bowl. Before he won his first and only,
I used to talk about him as a guy I
felt like should win three, four, five, just based off
his talent, and Josh feels like that guy. To me,

(25:38):
do they have enough around him? It feels like they
ask him to do. Look, every team asked their quarterback
to do a lot, but Buffalo asks Josh to do
a lot more than most teams ask from their quarterback.

Speaker 2 (25:48):
Is there enough around him to win a Super Bowl
this year?

Speaker 10 (25:52):
It's a great question, and to be entirely fair, they
might be one wide receiver short, and that's something to
monitor as we move closer to the trade deadline. Keon
Coleman had a decent first game. I think we could say,
you know, he had one hundred and twelve yards, he
had eight receptions. But he's more the one trick pony guy.

(26:12):
He can win down the field with his ball skills,
he can win towards the sideline with his ball skills.
He doesn't create separation, so it's not your sort of
prototypical A guy that profiles as wide receiver one in
the NFL never did. It's sort of a one trick utility.
There a guy who probably should function as a solid
wide receiver two the rest of his career. They don't

(26:33):
have a wide receiver one. You have a decent starter
in the solid starter in the slot in Shakir. Obviously
they have the two tight ends. This is a team
that is missing one starting wide receiver. Will that be
nullifying for the Super Bowl this year? I'm not sure,
but it has been the last couple of years. I
was a little bit surprised the Bills were not more
aggressive to try to add another wide receiver. It just

(26:55):
seems like if you had that kind of a guy
that would slot ahead ahead of Coleman and Shakir, that
everyone else just sort of falls into their acceptable place
within the NFL hierarchy wide receiver two, wide receiver three,
et cetera. That's something to watch out for. Can they
swoop in and steal a difference making wide receiver from

(27:15):
one of these teams that falls out of contention, you know,
a great exit. Yesterday everyone was complaining about the way
the Saints were using Olave right and Olave He's on
this dead end team and they're trying to manufacture and
touch it because their quarterback plays so bad, Olave is
going to want out of there is you know, could
they work something out with the Saints? Just one idea,
but there's other ones out there.

Speaker 1 (27:36):
Before we move off this game, because I'm still just
like buzzing from it. It's so good to have pro
football back, and so many thing places. I want to
go one more question about the Ravens because I also
feel like Lamar is just too I understand the playoffs stuff,
you know, I get all of it, but he just
feels like another quarterback talent's too good not to at

(27:56):
least get one. Derek Henry doesn't appear to have missed
at at all. I'm still stunny put it on the deck.
But if we pan back from this game and look
at it from thirty thousand feet, what do you make
of the Ravens this year?

Speaker 2 (28:08):
What do they feel good about today? Even though they
lost that game?

Speaker 10 (28:12):
You have to like the Ravens a lot. And and
you know, you can't lose track of the Ravens obviously,
you know the end of that game and the way
that the Bills roar it back. You can't lose track
of the opponent that they're playing, right, You're playing on
the road against one of the NFL's three best teams.
You lose by one point in a game that you
more or less controlled until the very end. There, do

(28:34):
you have to clean that up?

Speaker 3 (28:35):
Yeah?

Speaker 10 (28:35):
Can you go back to the drawing board and be
like this play call in this situation as a coaching stet,
do we make the right decision here? Yeah? But as
far as holistically the entire team, I think what we
saw last night was super encouraging. They gave the Bills
everything they could handle in Buffalo in that week one game,
and it's a Ravens team that is going to get
better and better as we go along. You sort of

(28:56):
work out some of these situational things like we're talking about. Yeah,
I'm not down on the Ravens at all. If anything,
you know, we saw a heavyweight championship fight last night.
Then those two teams probably, if I had to bet
right now, they're going to be running it back in
that AFC title game.

Speaker 1 (29:12):
All right, Moving off this game, Jackson Dart played his
high school football here locally. He went elsewhere obviously for college. Look,
Brian Dables on the hot seat. I don't think they
can wait. You know, there are already people in New
York clamoring for this guy's job, and the commanders are
really good, not taking anything away from them, But how
long do you ride with Russell Wilson, who Thoria for

(29:33):
honest just hasn't looked like he did in Seattle for
ever since he's left. There have been moments his final
year in Denver was okay. I mean, there have been
moments where he's looked okay. But how long does Brian
Daball wait until Jackson darts under center for the Giants.

Speaker 10 (29:49):
Mid season two? Late season? You know, you have a
coaching staff and you have an administration there that is
going to be needing to save their jobs at that point,
and I think turning the thing over to Dart, you know,
when you start you know whatever, they're going to start
two and six or whatever. You know, you're at that
point in the season. You lose nothing by turning it

(30:11):
over to Dart. So I think that when the season
sorts starts to go awry, I think some people would argue,
why don't you just start him now? The thing that
I wouldn't want to do if I'm New York is
throw Dart to the Wolves too early, because the thing
he has to learn is reading NFL defenses after the snap.
The kid, as you guys know from Utah local kid,

(30:34):
he has all the ability in the world. Jackson darts
the reason he was the five star recruit coming out
obviously signed with USC. You have all the arm talent
you need. Their super athletic kid. He's got all the
gumption you need too. Sometimes he tests windows where you're like,
oh my gosh, right, like you know, you fit like
a little letter inside it. The windows so small, and
he'll try to muscle that ball in there. Love all

(30:55):
that different stuff. But the lane Kiffin offense where he
put up all those stats, you were going to the
first read a lot and a lot of the times
that was a pre snap read and lane Kiffin would
do the really interesting stuff with the pre snap motion
and different stuff like that to get that initial read
open for him or open enough where Dark could throw
the ball in. Trey Harris, the Charters receiver now was functioning.

(31:19):
Is that when he played last year for All miss
But that's the thing they have to work through there,
and so for me it would be more like mid
to late season. You just don't want to embed any
bad habits in a kid that has the skill set
he needs to be a long term NFL starter.

Speaker 1 (31:34):
So, as a lifelong Jets fan, I will admit that
I was actually somewhat encouraged with the play of Justin
Fields and the offense looked like it had some juice
that hasn't happened it hasn't had in a while. I
was a little bit irritated that the quarterback for the
Steelers remembered how to play the position when he looked
like he had forgotten how to play it when he
was with the Jets. But what were your takeaways watching

(31:55):
Aaron Rodgers throw for four touchdown passes and then be
petty in the way that he just is as the
Steelers going in met Life and get that win.

Speaker 10 (32:04):
Yeah, that was That was pretty fascinating there. And Rogers,
you know, Metcalf had a good game. Obviously, he showed
some some synergy there with Kelvin Austin as well. Rogers
had a good first game. But we're gonna have to
see after this. I'm not crazy bullish on him going forward,
and I agree with your assessment. And the Jets they
were friskyar than I thought they would be. There is

(32:25):
more sort of imagination behind that offense than I thought
that there would be as well. They look good, They
look good, and I thought that they were going to
win that game. And this another example of a team
roaring back late. I think this Steelers outscored the Jets
seventeen to six there in the final quarter to end
up winning that game by two points. But uh, you know,
kudos to Rogers. This being a revenge game, you have

(32:47):
to imagine you put a little bit more eggs into
that basket. Seemed like he really wanted to say some
of those things in the post game that he ended
up saying some of those petty things that that you're
referring to. But yeah, going forward, not quite as bullish
on them. But the Jets, they might be a little
bit friskier this season that maybe we thought heading in.

Speaker 1 (33:03):
Jordan Love played his college ball at Utah State and
after a number of years sitting behind the aforementioned Aaron
Rodgers got the job a few years back. And I
think he's looked really good. You know, we're Jordan Love
fans around here. Had a chance to interview him, get
to know him a little bit, and we'll get to
the game tonight.

Speaker 2 (33:19):
But the Lions look like they missed their offensive.

Speaker 1 (33:21):
Coordinator, and obviously the Packers have a new toy on defense,
and a good win for the pack over Detroit.

Speaker 2 (33:26):
What were your takeaways?

Speaker 10 (33:28):
Yeah, that's right. I mean the first one would be
on the Lions side. This is a team that I
picked to not make the playoffs this year, and they
looked even worse than I thought they would. I mean,
a big part of that had to do with the
schedule that they were going to play, and of course
this was a tough opening game for them. But you
lose the offensive and the defensive coordinator as well, you
lost guys along your interior offensive line, and it looks

(33:51):
like the team itself in a vacuum has regressed more
than even the biggest pest miss about the lines heading
into the season than we could have thought. And we'll
see going forward when you play a lesser opponent. But yeah,
they were made to look pretty feeble in that game.
The Packers got all over them early. It was ten
and nothing after the first quarter. It was seventeen to
three at halftime. The Lions just were not competitive in

(34:13):
that game. If you're a legitimate playoff contender, you come
out and you're not competitive in Week one against Arrival,
so obviously huge shockdown for the Lions. And then as
far as the Packers go, they look great, you know
to what you're saying there in Jordan Love, he looked
really great one hundred and twenty eight point six quarterback
rating in that game. He did his thing of going

(34:35):
to a million different receivers.

Speaker 3 (34:36):
There.

Speaker 10 (34:37):
What I'm going to be interested in will will the
Packers this passing offense where you sort of have these
hockey shifts of receivers coming in and out. Will they
end up settling on a hierarchy where you have sort
of a guy that functions as a wide receiver one
and wide receiver two, or are you going to keep
doing this sort of hockey line thing. I think that'll
be interesting to watch going forward as some of your

(34:59):
better receive the veteran guys that get healthier, and then
Matthew Golden gets more experience, what does that hierarchy end
up looking like? But obviously the Steelers, I'm sorry, the
Packers last yesterday and they look like a Super Bowl contender.

Speaker 1 (35:11):
Let's hone in on some of the teams that seemed
to drum up the most interest in our market. Once
upon a time, the team that was closest to us
as far as geography goes, whereas the Denver Broncos and
now that Vegas as the Raiders.

Speaker 2 (35:22):
It is the Raiders. We'll get to the Raiders in
a moment.

Speaker 1 (35:25):
Game one for cam Ward and Denver might have the
best defense in the league. Okay from Bonicks, you know,
it really wasn't an offensive explosive weekend. And if you
need to prove, you can look at my fantasy football team.
Thank you seventy two points this week. But Denver wanted out,
what do you make of the first game of the
season for the Denver Broncos.

Speaker 10 (35:42):
Yeah, the Broncos, the defense, it's for real, right and
that thing it is carried over, Bonicks, not as good
of a game, Like you said, you had the three
turnovers there, you had the two interceptions, you lost the fumble,
but because of how feeball the Titans offense was up
winning that game. Anyway, I'll be curious to see, you know,

(36:03):
as far as Denver goes at their offense, can the
Bonix going forward their hierarchies, the running back room there
are how are you going to sort that out like
you talk about a fantasy football Plaguemier. There they gave R. J.
Harvey six carries. He was the best runner that they had,
though JK. Dobbins, he gave him a bunch of carries sixteen,
but he averaged less than four yards of carry. And

(36:24):
then Tyler Batty, he was the guy who was functioning
as their receiving back in that game, ended up getting
six targets.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
R J.

Speaker 10 (36:32):
Harvey is their best receiving back. And so like the
way that I would think it would go is Dobbins
getting the carry workload that you're going to give him
and then Harvey taking all the pass down work. Again,
I'll be interested to see them sort that out going forward.
But Portland Sutton looked pretty good. And then as far
as the Titans, I thought cam Ward looked decent. Even

(36:54):
though he went twelve to twenty eight for one hundred
and twelve yards. The receivers kept dropping the ball. You're
not going to get mini windows against the Broncos, and
cam Ward was more or less putting the balls on hands.
And I mean, you're not gonna get a bunch of separations,
so you need your pass catchers at that point to
make plays. He was let down in this game. The
Titans obviously do not have a ton of talent around him,

(37:16):
so it'll be interesting to see if any of those
guys can play better. I mean, Kelvin Ridley, you get
eight targets, you turn it into twenty seven yards on
four catches, like you have to have your veterans playing
better than that. But I think cam Ward showed the
Titans management at least, this is the guy that we
wanted at number one, and they're just gonna have to
get the playmakers around him playing better.

Speaker 1 (37:37):
You're a Niners fan. The good news is you went
up to Looman and got to win. And the good
news is Christian McCaffrey looked fine with twenty two carries
and nine catches thirty one touches overall. The bad news is,
haven't heard anything official yet, but you'll lose George Kittle
and Juwan Jennings and you're already without Brandon Ayuk. So
the good and the bad from game one for the
Niners store.

Speaker 10 (37:58):
Yeah, and you know you mentioned that with McCaffrey only
averaged three point one yards of carry, but obviously a
good defense and he had the was it nine receptions?
I mean, like you had everything together. He got over
the one hundred and fifty all purpose yards more or
less look like the Christian McCaffrey that we know. So
obviously that was a good sign. But you know, talking
about a receiving corps that already came into the season

(38:20):
less than one hundred percent. Now it's going to be
even more depreciated with some of those injuries that you're
talking about today. The forty nine ers signed Kendrick Bourne
and give him a decent contract to for a one
year rental for the last sixteen seventeen games. Of the
sixteen games, I suppose gave him the one year, five
million dollar contract to come in. They obviously needed the
immediate help based on where the receiving core is right now.

(38:43):
You stole that win in Seattle, so that was nice.
He went into the fourth quarter facing a deficit and
you ended up stealing that game. Ricky Piersall looked good.
We know we got one dude in Piersall as far
as the pass catcher, even if those injuries that you're
talking about, even if they linger for a little bit,
and then of course you have Jaffrey as well, but
Piersoll's emergence is a really big deal. He started to

(39:04):
down the stretch last year, the end of the regular
season into the playoffs and then and then in this
game here you go over the hundred yards and if
you look at Ricky Pearsol's routree in that game against
the Seahawks, it was all stuff down the field. So
that that's a guy they are obviously looking at as
their wide receiver one this season. He's going to continue
to function it that. I think he's going to breach

(39:25):
a thousand yards as well. I think Pearsall can have
a big season. But yeah, they're going to have to
figure it out that banged up pass catching court the
rest of September. You know, can we get born in,
can he play right away? And then what what are
the hell statuses of some of these other guys. But
at least you got one dude in Ricky Pearsol.

Speaker 1 (39:42):
Since I referenced the Raiders, they go to Gillette and
they get a win. And one thing I think most
people feel confident about when it comes to the Patriots
is they'll be a very good defensive team under Mike Vrabel.
And look again, Jet fan here, so I'm familiar with
the Gino Smith experience. You could do worse than gen A.
We saw ash and Genti into the end zone. We'll
see what the deal is with brock Bowers, who looked

(40:03):
awesome and before he had to leave. But takeaways from
Vegas heading back east in the Northeast and getting that
win over the Patriots.

Speaker 10 (40:11):
Yeah, this was an interesting schematic game where you look
at that Patriots defense you're talking about under Vraible. In
this game, they clearly came in with the thing of
we're not gonna let Ashton Genty beat us.

Speaker 3 (40:23):
Right.

Speaker 10 (40:23):
An interesting thing his ashon Genes first NFL game and
the Patriots obviously king on him. You end up holding
gent Heed only thirty eight rushing yards on nineteen carries,
only two yards of carry. He did not get ten
yards on any one carry. Nine was his long. However,
the Raiders, so teams in the past you could do that,
try to take away the run because we're not afraid

(40:44):
of the Raiders throwing the ball. Gino ends up putting
up three hundred and sixty two passing yards in that game.
He only attempted thirty four passes. He still got to
three sixty two looked really good. Brock Bauers head over
the one hundred yards. Brock Bauers gets nicked up in
that game, so we're gonna have to see, you know,
what's going on with that. But Jacobe Myers, he looked good.
He obviously had the trade demand in August, but he
was out there eight catches ninety seven yards. It's fun

(41:07):
now for the Raiders that again you have this stud
running back in Nash and Genty. The defensive stats are
going to be keying on the rest of the season.
You'd expect them that better games than this. But in
games where it's like we're going to pack the box,
we're not going to let Genty do anything. Okay, Gino
Smith can do his thing. And by the way, speaking
of the routtrees, I looked at Gino Smith where the

(41:27):
targets went in that game. None of it was manufactured.
I believe in that entire game, over his what was it,
thirty thirty four attempts, I believe there was only two
attempts that went behind the line of scrimmage, and it
was real close, within a yard or two of it.
Everything else was further down the field, and you had
a lot of downfield passing. Again, going back to the
thing of the Raiders haven't had a guy behind center

(41:50):
like this the past several years that they trust to
throw down the field. Gino's going to do that for him,
So makes the team in the offense a lot more dynamic.
And of course Chip Kelly, our old friend running that offense,
He's gonna have some stuff schemed up the rest this
season to take advantage of these playmakers that they have.

Speaker 1 (42:05):
We'll end with tonight, but before we get there, one
of the reasons why I'm you know, nearly through my
phone through the window as my fantasy football team was
suffering as my quarterback as Joe Burrow and Jamar Chase
was my number one overall pick. They escape Cleveland with
the win, but just barely, and that offense didn't look great.

Speaker 2 (42:24):
Any concern Now.

Speaker 1 (42:25):
The good news is, I do believe the Bengals are
just an average defense away over the course of a
season to have something to say about pro football this
year come playoff time.

Speaker 2 (42:34):
So there's that if you're a Bengals fan.

Speaker 1 (42:36):
But why was that offense unable to get off the
snight at all against the Browns.

Speaker 10 (42:40):
Yeah, it's it's a you know, a game for the
offense where it's a little bit tougher assignments and we
just look on the surface and just playing the Browns,
right like it's an outdoor road game. And the Browns,
while they have the horrible offense, they have a frisky defense,
especially up front. You know, you saw in that game
Miles Garrett had four tackles for loss. He had two sacks.
Is Jaa McGuire a guy they took in Day two

(43:02):
a couple of years ago. He had a great game.
Carson Schwshinger, the first pick in the second round from April,
the linebacker out of UCLA. He was flying around eight tackles.
He had a tackle for the last as well. The
Browns defensive front was having their way with the Bengals
offensive line. And this is the one thing, you know,
I mean, this has been the case past couple of years,
but the Bengals didn't do anything to address it this offseason,

(43:24):
right Like I thought, maybe that first round pick was
going to go towards offensive line. How they ended up
taking Shamar Stewart. Shamar Stewart looked pretty good by the
way in that game, especially for having the truncated first
training camp when he was holding out. But the offensive
line for the Bengals, if that thing doesn't get any better,
is the ceiling of this team any higher than what
we see in the last couple of years. Chase Brown
in that game, he had no room to run twenty

(43:46):
one carries for forty three yards, and you see Burrow.
He's the crash test dummy again back there. You have
to respect the guts of him, Like I mean, he's
always going to stand in there. He's going to step
into every throw, even when a free rusher is about
to just blast him in the chest. You saw that again.
But how much punishment can Joe Burrow end up taking?
I hope next offseason the Bengals finally get serious about

(44:09):
this with their offensive line, because nobody wants to see
Joe Burrow injured. That's what I'm keeping my eye on
this year. And can we do anything with the personnel
we have on hand. One example is something that they
could do. The Bengals took Todge Brooks, the running back
from Texas Tech and Round six this year. I don't
think it's because he's going to be challenging Chase Brown
for the Chase Brown stuff. It's because Tage Brooks was

(44:31):
one of the two best pass blocking running backs in
this past class. Can we get TODJ. Brooks on the
field anymore in passing downs? So that first free rusher
who's about to smoke Burrow that he'll be addressed by
the pass blocker back. I want to see some alteration
by your coaching staff if your front office is not
going to help Joe Burrow in the off season by
helping his protection, we need the coaching staff to do

(44:51):
some stuff with the schematics to try to help with that.
But you know, if you can do anything with that.
We obviously love Burrow, we love Jamar Chase. We expect
that offense to be good this year. We just need
to keep the playmakers healthy.

Speaker 1 (45:02):
Last thing, thro I'll set you loose. Monday night football.
Tonight will end the first week of the Pro football season.
It's the first season for Ben Johnson at the Helm.
We talked about the Lions and eMac offensive performance. Over
the weekend. We'll see j j Anders center for the Vikings.
What are you looking for tonight? How do you think
it goes down?

Speaker 10 (45:19):
I like the Vikings tonight, and you know folks out
there can take this with a grain of salt. I'm
coming to you live for Minneapolis, and I am the
biggest JJ McCarthy bobo on planet Earth.

Speaker 2 (45:27):
All Right.

Speaker 10 (45:28):
That being said, I like the Vikings in this game.
You look at the rosters across the positions. The Vikings
have the Bears at almost every position. And of course, yeah,
you have the quote unquote unknown at quarterback in McCarthy.
But McCarty was the best situational quarterback that we had
in college football. Twenty twenty three, the last year we
saw him, played the hardest strength to schedule of any

(45:48):
quarterback in the nation. That year ended up beating Washington
in the National title after beating Nick Saban in the
last game he coached the game before that, in the
Semis against Alabama. McCarthy really good quarterback. You're going to
get the quarterback using their legs more than we see
in the past with Vikings offenses. The Vikings fix their
in tier offensive line this offseason. They had one of
the NFL's worst in tier offensive lines the last several years.

(46:11):
Now they have one of their best. You signed two
guys to big money contracts. You use your first round
pick on the guard on the other side, so you're
gonna be able to do that. And then you went
out and got Jordan Mason to run the ball. I
think one thing to watch out fortnite the Vikings muscling
the ball on the ground more than you've seen in
the past. I think Jordan Mason has a big game.
I think McCarthy, not that they said that they're going

(46:34):
to use it the full playbook with him, but I
think you established the run first before you start attacking
the Bears secondary, and that Bear secondary might be depreciated.
Jalen Johnson, his status is up in the air. If
they do not have Jalen Johnson to line up across
from Justin Jefferson. I think Kevin O'Connell is not gonna
be able to help himself. You're going to see more
throwing down the field in that scenario, even at being

(46:55):
McCarthy's first start. There one other random thing to keep
an eye on the field. Conditions in Chicago today are
not good. There's already a video surfacing of the grown
crew in Chicago as we speak. They are trying to
fix seams on the field. They're trying to patch the
seams together. We have some playing surface issues in Chicago

(47:15):
this evening, and we'll see if we get inclement weather
as well to exacerbate it even worse. But one thing
to watch out for their the field conditions tonight.

Speaker 2 (47:24):
Thor Where can people go find your work, Bud?

Speaker 10 (47:27):
You can find me on Fantasy Life, Matthew Berry's Fantasy Life.
You can go there for all the NFL draft work
we put out this summer, all the position rankings, everything
like that. We're gonna have a mock draft out first
of the twenty twenty six process next week. But yeah,
you can check us out there. And all my colleagues
are some of the best fantasy football analysts on planet Earth,
so you check them out as well.

Speaker 3 (47:46):
Well.

Speaker 2 (47:46):
I'm gonna have to check you out after laying in
EG week one.

Speaker 10 (47:48):
Buddy.

Speaker 1 (47:48):
I appreciate the time, enjoy the game tonight. We'll get
you back on soon.

Speaker 10 (47:51):
Okay, appreciate you guys as always.

Speaker 1 (47:53):
All right, Thorn Eistrom from out of that football tonight.
It is the Vikings and the Bears. That game is
on our radio station right after we say good night
at six o'clock, so stay tuned for that. We're going
to bring in Scott Mitchell today, let you hear from
coach Wit. A little bit later on in the program,
Peter Schrager and Ryan Clark are sitting next to each
other being nice to each other on the Monday night

(48:15):
Football Day. As the whole like I played, you didn't
thing is the corniest, laziest thing to throw at another
analyst that's just trying to do their job.

Speaker 2 (48:22):
I would imagine you've been following this story a little bit.

Speaker 5 (48:25):
A little bit, I tend to like turn it off
when it starts to get that way on on sports coverage,
But yeah, it is. Listen, there is like a certain
part of sports that if you hadn't played at a
certain level, you don't have that knowledge that you can,
you know, add perspective on. But yeah, there's there's some

(48:48):
athletes who, let's be clear, had good careers and aren't
terrible at covering the sport.

Speaker 2 (48:56):
But you know, just case by case. Have you ever
heard Isaiah Thomas talk about basketball?

Speaker 3 (49:00):
Right?

Speaker 5 (49:00):
It sounds like he's never played basketball. He was awesome,
he was incredible.

Speaker 1 (49:05):
I Mean whenever one of these stories kind of pops up,
I just kind of rolled my eyes shake.

Speaker 2 (49:10):
It's it's so corny.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Some of the worst analysts in sports were some of
the best players that I ever saw play Like, I've
never learned anything listening to Magic Johnson talk about basketball
or tweet about basketball. But Magic Johnson the top five
player of all time. So anyway, they're playing nice on
the set. But Monday n Football comes your way in
just a bit, all right, Utah Football two and zero.
Our next guest, our local AP top twenty five voter

(49:34):
covers the youth for ksl Josh for a long Happy Monday, sir,
how are you?

Speaker 11 (49:38):
I'm good man, I'm good.

Speaker 1 (49:41):
So through two games. Here's my first question. What do
you feel like you know about Utah football?

Speaker 11 (49:49):
I feel like I know that you tuk and sports
score points. I think they've been really efficient and effective
that way, even when they're not perfect, they've found ways
to just really move the ball. And I think for
everything that Utah needed going into this season, that's probably
the best thing that they need, right. Like, there's still
questions on the offense. You know, it's not perfect. You know,
I'm sure we'll talk about some of that, but I

(50:12):
think the fact that they've been able to score points
and doing an inefficient manner is a great sign, and
I don't think it really matters the opponent, quite honestly.
I think the fact that you've been able to score
and do it well kind of says more than anything else.
So to me, that's kind of the biggest takeaway that
I've had from the season outside of just Jason Beck
has full control of this offense. So I think there's

(50:33):
a lot to kind of have there knowing that Kyle
Whittingham isn't necessarily micro managing everything. It's Jason Beck's show
and it's been a good show at that.

Speaker 2 (50:43):
What are the questions, Josh that still remain in your mind.

Speaker 11 (50:48):
I think it's still wide receiver right, And I don't
think this is fully on the wide receivers completely, you know.
I think you know, it's easy to say, oh, they're
not getting separation because Dan Pier's not getting them the ball.
I think it's a combination of the two in the
sense that damp Pier is trying his best to limit turnovers,
and I think that's been preached to him as a guy,

(51:08):
you know, after coming out of his year last year
right through twelve picks. It's it's learning when to make
the right throw and wing to be aggressive, and quite honestly,
against cal Pauly, you didn't need to be aggressive. Against UCLA,
you didn't really need to throw it all that much.
You could go with the run game. So, you know,
I think it's still a question in the sense that
we don't know what it is, but they've clearly shown

(51:28):
that there's guys that can be effective. You know, Ryan
Davis who had a leg up on the offense because
he played in it last year. He's been pretty solid.
Tobias Merriweather's been able to get some some separation and
be able to get the ball at times. The Utah's
utilized their tight ends, they've utilized other elements. They used
Wayshaun Parker last week to be able to have a
nice little fifty yard run off of a dump offf catch. So,

(51:52):
you know, I think it's still you know, TVD, but
I don't know that Utah's fully played all their cards,
and so I think we're still bound to see kind
of what this wide receiver room looks like. But at
the end of the day, like if they can move
the ball, that thought that matters, And right now they've
been able to move the bomb.

Speaker 2 (52:08):
Yeah, for sure, and you know it.

Speaker 1 (52:10):
It is a little bit nitpicky to complain after two
pretty dominant performances.

Speaker 2 (52:14):
But let me just ask you a question.

Speaker 1 (52:16):
I know you referenced this earlier that it doesn't matter
who the opponent is, and I understand that point because
really you just hone in on the way Utah has looked,
but you do have to probably acknowledge and coach Wait
himself has acknowledged that the competition thus far has not
been that stiff. So how would you, just for you
fans out there that maybe just don't watch every single

(52:37):
game like you do or we do, how would you
articulate the type of test generally speaking, UCLA has been.
And then if you want to throw Kyle poly in there,
that's fine too, but we know that that was a joke.

Speaker 11 (52:48):
Yeah, I mean, I think they're good tests, right, especially
early in the in the in the season where you're
trying to kind of try some things out, trying to
figure out what sticks, kind of trying to find your identity.
And you know, like UCLA is always going to be
a call test because they have athletes that are power
for athletes, right, they may not have lived up to
their expectations in terms of being able to be a

(53:10):
solid team completely. But at the same time, you're going
up against guys that are going to be more akin
to who you are in the Big twelve. They may
be near the bottom of the Power four, but at
the same time, you've got a team that is going
to have a similar look as what you're going to get.
So I think that's invaluable in the sense that you're
playing a team that was going to look like a

(53:31):
lot of what you're going to get this year, and
on top of that, you blew them out of the water,
right like you did your job, And I think that
that's what matters the most. Right I think if if
you know, we're talking today in Utah had beat UCLA
by three points, and you saw what they did against UNLB,
maybe there's a little bit more nerves that this isn't
going to translate, you know, at the Big twelve level.

(53:53):
I think the fact that they were able to score
forty three points on UCLA and then follow it up
with another pounding of an STS team you should beat up,
it gives you at least more confidence that this could
be potentially sustainable. This isn't just non conference, you know,
Shenanigans and teams are doing what they need to get points.
It lends itself more to you know, the efficiencies they are.

(54:16):
There's been games in years past where Utah plays you know,
you know, these equal level of opponents and they can't
get scores in the red zone, right like they've played
FCS games where they've had to putt several times. This
is a team that has been able to be efficient
on offense that are hundred percent once they get into
the red zone on touchdowns. And so I think like

(54:36):
that to me is where I'm looking at it more
not necessarily about the opponent that does matter. Like you said,
it's going to get significantly harder, especially in two weeks.
I mean even this week is going to be a
challenge going in a in a venue that's going to
try to get up to play you Like, this is
going to get more difficult. But I think the fact
that you've been able to be efficient the way that
you have in these first two is a good sign

(54:58):
that Utahs at least making the the right progress that
they need to to move forward.

Speaker 1 (55:02):
As I referenced, Josh, you are ap top twenty five
voter in the market. Utah with the win over the weekend,
combined with some other teams not performing well, allows them
to move five spots up to twenty. Don't give a
rip about the coaches Po'll never have, But is that
about right?

Speaker 2 (55:17):
What do you what do you think Utah comes in
at twenty?

Speaker 12 (55:20):
Yeah?

Speaker 11 (55:21):
I mean it's kind of funny that they moved up
five spots the week that they put in FCS team.
I mean, that just doesn't generally happen because it's not
a game that you kind of put a lot of
stuck into. But I think a lot of voters, you know,
felt like that they didn't rank them, you know, accurately,
maybe they got called out or whatever it may be,
and so they kind of responded with a little bit

(55:43):
more of an appropriate ranking locally, you know, I have
Utah at sixteen, Is that right?

Speaker 3 (55:48):
No?

Speaker 11 (55:49):
I don't know. I mean, it's hard to know really
who's better than Utah right now, but I think where
they're at is fine, right. I think it all kind
of plays out in the end. The fact that Utah
had the year that they had last year and then
they're already ranked in the top twenty five just kind
of shows the respect that people have for the youth,
so more than where they land in the poll and
kind of who has them in or who has them high.

(56:12):
You know, I think it's more just a sign of
respect more than anything. I mean, there's teams like UFC
who have been blowing out teams and they're still not
in there, and they usually get over inflated in their rankings.
So I think it's just a sign of respect of
where Utah's at right now and whether they're twenty or
twenty five or fifteen. I don't know that it matters
right now. You know, if you were to ask Kyle Whittingham,
he doesn't care. He wants to see it at the

(56:33):
end of the year more than week two. So I
think it's a good sign of respector at the same time,
you know, you could you could throw spaghetti at the
wall and have better chances of understanding what's going to
happen than understanding where UTAH should be ranked in the
top twenty five.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
We know the deal when it comes to injuries really
not discussed very much unless they're season enders during conference
play they are supposed to report. I'm still curious to
see what sort of black magic wit decides to spin
there when and he's mandated to do it.

Speaker 2 (57:01):
But what's your understanding.

Speaker 1 (57:02):
I know Logan didn't go, who else wasn't on the field,
And do you have any insight into some of the
players that we didn't see on Saturday.

Speaker 11 (57:10):
Yeah, they held Jaron comp out so Utah Center. They
held him out for precautionary reasons as well. Dallas Baclacke
got banged up a little bit in that UCLA game
and it's still a little unknown and when he's going
to come back, So really curious to kind of see
what happens with them. But they've been effective in the
defensive tackle room. They've been able to kind of make

(57:30):
up for it a little bit, So they've been okay there.
And there's other guys like Dadrin Zipperer who's been held out.
JJ Buchanan was sick last week, So there's just some
little things that are happening. Rabbit Evans hasn't been able
to go if he's been dealing with some issues as well,
that in theory could get him back by Texas Tech.

Speaker 3 (57:47):
But by and March.

Speaker 11 (57:48):
This is a team that's mostly healthy. It's more just
kind of dealing with the normal bumps and bruises and
trying to make sure the guys are healthy going into
these games. So I would I wouldn't be surprised if
Utah held out some of these guys against Wyoming as well,
trying to make sure that they were healthy before, trying
to kind of get as many people as you can
back before that Texas Tech game next week. So nothing

(58:09):
ear shattering by any means, but you definitely need some
of these guys. You need Jared Kup on the center
to be able to be there. You need bog and
Fano in the offensive or the defensive line. You need
Dallas Makalahi there for Utah to really have success. But
as it stands right now, Utah is in a good
spot in terms of injury. I'm sure somebody out there's
knocking on wood right now.

Speaker 1 (58:26):
For sure, and we all should be based off the
past couple of years. Let's move over to this weekend.
It is Wyoming. Utah is a healthy favorite. I think
I saw the line was twenty five. Wyoming has won
both their games, but they haven't played anybody yet. It's
a weird place. I've been to games there. It's an
odd trip. It's something that might be able to sneak
up on you a little bit. I'm hoping the script

(58:48):
looks a lot like it did on Saturday, where the
game really is never in doubt. Maybe you can get
some of the starters on ice. But what do you
know about Wyoming? What sort of challenge do they pose,
and what your youth fans hope to see coming up
on Saturday night.

Speaker 11 (59:02):
This is a team that definitely has a good defense,
right I think you're going to go in there and
you're going to have to try like. This isn't something
where Wyoming is just going to roll over and you
go out there with win. This is a team that's
going to play up and try to compete. I mean,
this is honestly one of their best games of the season,
and so they're going to try their hardest to be
able to knock you to off what they want to do.

(59:23):
That defense is going to be aggressive. They're trying to
try to get into the backfield and really disrupt what
Devin damp here in that offense is trying to do.
But outside of that, you know, this is a team
that's still kind of a work in progress. This isn't
the same head coach that's been up there forever. It's
still kind of a new transition to what they they're
doing in their new era of Wyoming football. Their quarterback

(59:46):
was sent to the hospital earlier this week, and so
there's you know, the comments made today by the head
coach where they he'll play. But I have to imagine
that if you got sent to the hospital, things aren't
fully in a great situation. So, you know, really curious
to see what the QB situation looks like. They've got
pieces right, like, they're not a team that's devoid of

(01:00:07):
talent by any means. But I think this is one
of those games where, assuming that Utah shows up and
plays the way that they need to, this should be
a solid incident. But one hundred percent, this can be
a trap game. This can be one of those games
where why I only just give you fits, especially if
you're overlooking them for that text tech game and so
you'd have to worry about it, right. I think this

(01:00:28):
team has the right mindset and mentality going into this,
but you never know, right, teams can get sick, teams
can get injured. You know, there's a lot of different
things that can factor into these games, and you just
have to make sure that you're approaching this game in
the right way.

Speaker 1 (01:00:40):
Hopefully we won't really need a backup quarterback this year,
but if years passed if taught us anything. Sometimes you
need one, sometimes you need two, sometimes you need four.
Isaac Wilson was announced as the backup quarterback. I know
there's conversation about maybe saving that red shirt. I don't
know what exactly that entails, but so far, Bird Ficklin's

(01:01:02):
been the guy that's got a call when Devin sits.
Tell us your knowledge of what this dynamic entails right now,
Josh yeah.

Speaker 11 (01:01:10):
Kyle Whittingham today said that there's still hasn't anything changed
despite Bird getting the reps in the last two games.
I think from their vantage point, they're trying to see
how Bird plays, you know, in real game settings, and
I think in Fall he was, you know, close with
what Isaac was able to do. And so if you
can get him into these game like settings and see

(01:01:32):
that he can live it up, I think that gives
them some comfort, don't I don't know? Quite honestly, I
don't know that the red shirt stuff matters in this
day and age. These guys are moving back and forth
to different teams all the time, or they're doing different
things to kind of play the game. I think, you know,
if you were to give Kyle Whittingham the true theorem

(01:01:53):
at Bird, Ficklin is the guy that they're hoping can develop.
He fits the scheme that Devin Dampier has for the offense,
and so there wasn't a lot of drop off in
terms of what they needed to do. Not to say
that Isaac can't be that guy. I just think the
road for Isaac is such an uphill battle based on
last year, and unfortunately for him, a lot of the

(01:02:14):
blame of last season was laid on his shoulders, even
though it wasn't all him, and so I think it's
it's just a tough situation for him, and so I
think for him to be the actual QB two is
a tough spot. And it's really easy to look at
the guy that looks like your starting quarterback who had
flashes of brilliance. I mean that stiff arm that he
gave in that fourth quarter showcase kind of who he

(01:02:35):
can be. His passing is crisp. There's a lot to
like about Bird, but trusting a true freshman to be
that guy is tough. So I think They're going to
do whatever they can to get Bird the ball, to
try to give him the reps. If it comes long
term that Devin is out, maybe they go to Isaac.
But I have a sneaking suspicion that Bird is the guy.
It's just a matter of formality for him to be

(01:02:55):
that if they need.

Speaker 1 (01:02:57):
To Josh before I set you loose, you know, I
think it's it's clear that this is a good football team.
It's a physical football team and probably better than most
were expecting based off fair and legitimate questions from the
down season that coach Wit himself called the debacle a
year ago.

Speaker 2 (01:03:14):
So there's that.

Speaker 1 (01:03:15):
Then the other side of it is this conference so far,
the Big Twelve Conference so far, just hasn't shown themselves
very well in non kind of opportunities. Oklahoma State got
undressed in Eugene and my gun, he might have learned
a lesson you do not poke the Dan Lanning Bear,
a lesson that Deon Sanders learned not too long ago.
Mississippi State is thought to be one of, if not

(01:03:36):
the worst team in the SEC. Arizona State at one
point felt like kind of a consensus pick to win
the Big Twelve.

Speaker 2 (01:03:41):
They lose in Startville.

Speaker 1 (01:03:43):
Iowa State got it done against Iowa, but they tried
to give give it away. Baylor with an exciting win.
It's not all bad. Kansas loses to Miszoo. It feels
a lot like last year. Army goes into Case State
and beats them. How good you think the conference is?
Just overall? Before I set you loose?

Speaker 11 (01:04:00):
Yeah, I think the help of the conference isn't necessarily
great after this last week. I think going into the season,
there was a lot of optimism that there could be,
you know, six to eight teams that could compete for
the Big twelve title, and right now it just doesn't
appear to be kind of a lot of consistency there.
And that's not to say that these same teams couldn't
compete for a Big Twelfth title. We're not even in
conference play yet, but it just it's been really lackluster,

(01:04:22):
right Like, there just hasn't been you know, this star
moments or there's moments where you feel like the Big
twelve has arrived, you know, and especially with so many
returning quarterbacks, where this is kind of the heralded aspect
of the conferences season, it just hasn't lived up to
that expectation. I mean a couple of years ago when
Utah was in the Pac twelve and you had Caleb Williams,
Michael Penix, Junior bow Nix, those types of things. They

(01:04:44):
lived up to that, right and they showed on the
biggest stage, and we just we just haven't seen that.
And so, you know, I don't know if there's a
collective problem or if it's just you know, some of
these teams are overhyved, but it's not a good situation
for the Big twelves. And you know, if Utah is
able to run the show, I mean, that's more more
power to them. But I don't know, it's it's just

(01:05:05):
not a good situation for the Big twelve right now.

Speaker 2 (01:05:07):
No, it's not. Josh.

Speaker 1 (01:05:08):
Thanks for the time, man, have a great week and
we'll get you back on next week.

Speaker 12 (01:05:11):
Sound great.

Speaker 11 (01:05:12):
Appreciate it, Man.

Speaker 1 (01:05:12):
Hight Josh forlong covers of the utes for ksl Utah
football Back in Action coming up on Saturday at Wyoming
and Laramie. It is a six o'clock kick. Our pregame
coverage with Porter begins at two and then we'll throw
it over to Bill and Scott and slide in the gang.
We'll have the call for you as Utah tries to
remain clean. Two and oh after the first two weeks
of the college football season. We'll catch a break. Coming

(01:05:34):
up on the other side, we will catch up with
Brian Dunn Seth. We have Scott Mitchell stopping by today.
We'll let you hear from sound some sound from Coach
Wit from earlier today. Want to let you know with
IFA's Step four fall and winterlawn food, you'll get stronger
roots now and an early green up deck spring.

Speaker 2 (01:05:49):
It's the ultimate lawn owner power.

Speaker 1 (01:05:50):
Move more at your local IFA or at IFA dot
co Op. Donny stops by coming up on the other side.
All right, show rolling along today. Before we catch a break,
we will come and my friend once again, Jeff Rode
from my hearing Centers.

Speaker 2 (01:06:02):
Jeff, how are you sir?

Speaker 8 (01:06:03):
Doing great? Thanks?

Speaker 1 (01:06:04):
All right, So we're talking about the brand new Signia
BCTIX hearing aids now.

Speaker 2 (01:06:10):
I'll onways speak for myself.

Speaker 1 (01:06:11):
But I would imagine when a lot of people hear okay,
they're selling hearing aids, they think of the big old
bananas that go on the back of your ear that
my grandfather had and it was very obvious that he
had hearing aids because you could see them. These are
discreet and they're small, So let's talk about this new technology.
What should our listeners know about the Signia bctix.

Speaker 9 (01:06:30):
Well, besides being very small and it's very hard for
people to even know that you're worrying them because they
are so small, but they have some amazing technology. For instance,
this bctix has what's called multi stream processing, which will
actually follow a person's voice around the room as they

(01:06:50):
move and it will decrease and reduce the background noise,
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as they move around in a room. So you're going
to still hear them as they're moving.

Speaker 2 (01:07:05):
And our listeners should know.

Speaker 1 (01:07:06):
So the BCTIX it stands for Bluetooth Connectivity, Transform Slash
Integrated Experience, and you can stream your favorite TV shows.
You can hook these hearing aids up to your phone
and listen to music.

Speaker 9 (01:07:18):
Right absolutely, you can do that, writ in your hearing aids,
make phone calls, and it just makes it so much easier.

Speaker 1 (01:07:26):
Talk about the rechargeable batteries. Obviously, these things are going
to need to be charged, but you have an excellent
capacity to make sure these things are charged take them
on the go.

Speaker 9 (01:07:34):
Well, that's something else. It's different about hearing aids Now.
It used to be you had to replace the batteries,
you know, every week when they go bad. But now
they've got the rechargeable batteries. These will last actually for
thirty six hours without having to be recharged. And then
when you do recharge them, there's a portable charging case
that you carry with you that will give you up

(01:07:54):
to three charges.

Speaker 8 (01:07:56):
So it's amazing.

Speaker 9 (01:07:57):
You can take them anywhere you need to go, and
it's very handy to recharge in when it's time.

Speaker 1 (01:08:02):
And also that old commercial that says, oh there's an
app for that, well there's an app for this too,
which makes it handy and easy to make adjustments.

Speaker 9 (01:08:09):
Chat Yes, absolutely, you can make adjustments to the hearing
aids based on the situation you're in. For instance, if
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it to filter out that noise, you can go and
do the app on your phone and you can make
that change very quickly and very easily. It's also got
an assistant so It's kind of an AI feature where

(01:08:30):
you can say, hey, I'm experiencing this with my hearing aids,
and it will say, okay, let me try this for you,
and it will make an adjustment and then we'll say
is that better? Do you want me to go more.
It's a great part of the app which is something
that is very unique.

Speaker 2 (01:08:45):
Very cool.

Speaker 1 (01:08:46):
Jeff, what's the special offer you for our listeners? Will
give you a call today?

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Well, we want your listeners to come in and try
out the bctix for themselves for thirty days see how
they work.

Speaker 2 (01:08:57):
All right, here's the deal.

Speaker 1 (01:08:57):
My Hearing Censors is looking for fifty ESPN listeners with
problems hearing to take part in a thirty day challenge
to evaluate the newly released Signia bctix. Give them a
call today to schedule your appointment.

Speaker 2 (01:09:10):
All right, we are.

Speaker 1 (01:09:11):
About two hours and we'll call it forty minutes away
from kick in Chicago. It's the Vikings and the Bears Monday,
that football will complete the first week of pro football.
Of course, you can know the game on our station
after we say good night.

Speaker 2 (01:09:25):
Where are your home?

Speaker 1 (01:09:25):
With the NFL and the best college football in our market,
We're gonna bring in Scott Mitchell today. We'll let you
hear from coach Wit a little bit later on. But
RSL is actually going to play a soccer match this Saturday.
After being off for a year. It's been a weird
like fall break for RSL. The US men's national team
continues to look ill prepared for the World Cup in
nine months.

Speaker 2 (01:09:45):
They're gonna play tomorrow against Japan.

Speaker 1 (01:09:47):
And we go live to Columbus where our guy Brian
don Seth is standing by Donny.

Speaker 2 (01:09:52):
What's going on, man, good.

Speaker 4 (01:09:55):
To see the other day, Spence. I enjoyed it. Man,
You and I haven't had a catch up like that
in a long long time.

Speaker 1 (01:10:00):
I just can't believe how big your boys are, dude, Like,
I remember when all of them were born, and they're
like men.

Speaker 11 (01:10:05):
Now.

Speaker 2 (01:10:05):
It's wild.

Speaker 4 (01:10:06):
Yeah yeah. Now, now this size about to get his
driver's license. That means I'm on the hook for all
the parents out there. You know what it's like. You
realize that car insurance is going to go through the roof.
Now I got to figure out a car that's reliable
and safe and at the same time, I guess cool.
Mine was a nineteen eighty two Brown's way to pick

(01:10:26):
up with AMFM radio and air conditioning was you rolled
down the windows nice with your hands instead, you know,
the electrical one. But yeah, man, we're wild times man,
A couple of teenagers, one little nugget and yeah they're
growing too fast, man, long days and nights, really fast
years for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:10:46):
Well said, great to see as well, my friend, and
thank you for the time.

Speaker 3 (01:10:48):
Today.

Speaker 2 (01:10:49):
We'll end with SAMRSL.

Speaker 1 (01:10:50):
But let's start with US men's national team, as you're
going to be there once again involved on the broadcast
as they take on Japan tomorrow.

Speaker 2 (01:10:57):
But Doddy, just another.

Speaker 1 (01:10:58):
Misstep and the World Cup is nine months away, so
tell me your takeaways as they lost to South Korea
to nil.

Speaker 4 (01:11:05):
Yeah, I mean all of these this this next three
windows fixed opponents are going to be already teams that
have qualified for the World Cup, and the thought process is,
how can you theoretically schedule these friendlies? There's no jeopardy
of World Cup qualifying in terms of pressure, and you know,
standing on the field in Honduras down one nothing with

(01:11:25):
you know, forty five minutes to get a result and
get yourself back in the World Cup, it's almost impossible.
So Marisa Pucatino today was very adamant that while results
theoretically matter, this is really the only time that he
gets an opportunity to see some of the depths of
what the player pool looks like, including those Pnochi Banks,

(01:11:45):
eighteen year old playing for Albsburg who came on and
played the last couple of minutes against Bayern Munich the
other day, versus the Tristan Blackman, or a Christian Boldon
or even Alexon Dejas at Club America, guys that he
hasn't really seen that much, so an opportunity to test
the player pool. But like Turkey A and Switzerland very quickly,
I think we all kind of have the eyeball test

(01:12:08):
of guys that can play versus guys that can't play,
or guys that we theoretically thought to play at a
higher level than maybe they really can. So all of
these things can be true, but the frustration and listen
this window I tried to tell people when you're talking
about career Republic and you're talking about Japan, these are

(01:12:28):
two of the most intelligent athletic technical like physical speed
demon speed merchants that you can possibly play. And Korea
hadn't lost once in twenty eight matches, had given up
just eight goals and sixteen World Cup qualifiers. Japan is
very similar. They should have smashed. They could have been

(01:12:51):
up for nil twenty minutes in up in Oakland against Mexico.
So these were going to be here.

Speaker 3 (01:12:56):
I mean, I said.

Speaker 4 (01:12:57):
Postgame, did anybody really think they were going to be Korea?
Because even with the first team, I think this is
going to be difficult. And by the first team, I mean,
you know Geo Reyna and Wester McKenney and Eunice Mussa
and all those guys Jedi Robinson playing for Fulham. So
you know, from Pochattino's standpoint, this is a progression of
idea from the US fan base. There's a mixture of fear,

(01:13:23):
being tense about results, and then altmost like a sense
of apathy towards this group of players that we know,
we all kind of endeared them to be the you know,
this Golden generation and Christian prolific is part of this
Golden Generation conversation. The rest probably up for debate. But
you got some guys that will do absolutely anything to

(01:13:44):
be a part of it, like Tim Leya and Tyler
Adams and all these guys. And at the same time,
because the results aren't there, you've got a fan base
that's saying, hold on a second, we just want to win.
And where's that core DNA of visually the eyeball task
of guys that are going to do everything in their
power to leave it on the field consistently. You know,

(01:14:05):
the heart, grit, determination, the soul, the representation of the badge.
And I think for a lot of people that's not visual.
Those visuals aren't matching up with the collective DNA. I mean,
how many times Spence when we were watching whether it's
Bruce Arena, or was Bob Bradley or even Jurgen Clintsman,
we were watching these guys like Aguccian Yevu and Tim

(01:14:25):
Howard and Carlos Polkanegra Michael Bradley, Jermaine Jones, Clint Dempsey,
these guys like lave it all on the field, the
Marcus Beasley, Steet Tarundelo, like you always knew when these
guys went to battle. They went to battle. And I
think the hard part for a lot of fans right now,
the former players, pundits, media members is they're looking at
this group saying hold on a second man, you like,

(01:14:48):
if you would have just marked, you know, marked the
back post against the Netherlands, you could have gone through.
You played really, really well at the World Cup, and
we thought this was going to be the Strato Spirit climb.
Like man, we made it. And here we are nine
months out or sorry, nine matches remaining before Mauricia Pochettino
has to name a World Cup roster. And I think

(01:15:10):
a lot of fans are looking at this and saying, well,
it's not Greg Burholt's fault. Now, we've got a world
class manager who's trying to tell us things that we
don't feel like we're seeing with our eyes. And so,
what the hell is really happening with this group of
players that ultimately are responsible for stepping on the field
and wearing the US men's national team crest and beating

(01:15:31):
teams like Turkey and Switzerland and Mexico and lifting trophies
and getting out of Copa Meedica and making deep runs.
I think maybe our standard of expectation has shifted significantly,
something I don't think any of us could have ever predicted.

Speaker 1 (01:15:48):
All Right, if we panned back from just a vacuum
and a loss to South Korea. And to your point,
it's a good side. We saw Pochettino's fourteenth different starting
eleven and seventeen games games. Okay, so there's that they
are winless in seven games against top twenty five teams,
losing six of them since beating Mexico and the CONCACAFF

(01:16:11):
Nations League. They've been outscored eleven to two in the
first half of those games. And we're nine months away,
Donny from the World Cup. My question is simple. The
answer is certainly not. Do you think he knows who
his best eleven are? Do you think he has any idea?

Speaker 4 (01:16:24):
I think, well, yes, I do. I mean, I think
he's incredibly intelligent, and I think we're making it too
simple at times. And I understand from you know, light
everything on fire in the social media perspective, how easy
it is to kind of gang up in this tribal
mentality that we have with regards to the US men's

(01:16:45):
national team. But I think what we're kind of missing
is and this is more subjective and nuance that you know.
Maybe the reason why I'm Wes mckenney's not in the
national team right now is whether it's a message sent
or it's an opportunity to bet in with the new
manager at UB It's certainly the conversation with Johnny and

(01:17:07):
Diego Simeoni at Athletico Madrid. Hey, is it worth calling
him in for a couple of friendlies with no jeopardy
or are we looking at a guy that can really
get his feet underneath him played for the next six
months as opposed to lose his position for no reason.
You know, the same to be said, you know, Jedi
Robinson knee injuries, making you know, going under the knight

(01:17:29):
during the summer, making sure he's protected. Matt Turner Man,
just go get some games you haven't played in the
better part of two years outside the national team. Geo Rena,
don't call him in because he's been in no man's
land for a long time and they got to figure
out a way to get him back on track. So
I think if you asked Marisa Pocatino today to and

(01:17:52):
maybe this is my presumption, but to put together his
starters for the World Cup, I think it would look
eerily similar to what we saw against the Netherlands. Maybe
with the exception of Walker's, Zimmerman and hayeses fededa. But
then again, you know we're three years on and not
feeling any more secure. So yes, I do think he knows.

(01:18:13):
But I also think he looks at this and says,
you know, it's much easier to suss out success in
Europe and success in Major League soccer, but not making
that jump to the international level. And the difference between
playing maybe Haiti, or the difference between playing Jamaica is
drastically different than playing against Turkey in Switzerland and Korea

(01:18:35):
and Japan, Uruguay and Paraguay and Australia and all these Ecuador,
all these teams that are qualified for the World Cup.
You're going to get a better understanding of these individuals
that can play or make the roster now as opposed
to maybe, you know, turn to January. Someone goes down injured,
Johnny goes down injured, Say at Athletics a Madrid, and

(01:18:56):
all of a sudden people are saying, hey, Maurice Field,
why didn't you ever get Aiden Morris a chance? Why
didn't you ever give Sebastian Berhalter a chance. So, in
the nuance of the conversation, sense, I do think he
knows who his best group is. But this is also
an opportunity for a guy that's been in the job
for effectively a year and a half. And by the way,
this group failing all of those guys I mentioned collectively

(01:19:20):
failing at COPA Metica as well as Nations League last
March to say, okay, let's take a deeper look at
this pool. Let's see who's available.

Speaker 1 (01:19:31):
I wonder what your reaction was when you saw the
latest US men's national team roster announcement. I read and
heard a lot of people kind of scratch their head
about it when it comes to some of the omissions.
Do you do you share that sentiment or do you
like kind of the direction he's taken, at least with
his latest iteration.

Speaker 4 (01:19:50):
I was surprised.

Speaker 3 (01:19:51):
Listen.

Speaker 4 (01:19:52):
You know, when you see Tristan Blackman's name at twenty
nine years old, you know, I'm thinking to myself, well,
WoT you be better served getting the repetition of, you know,
collective game with guys like Mark McKenzie, Guys like Miles Robinson,
who I would rank above Tristan Blackman. You know, Shawn
Zawatski comes in from the Columbus crew. I would have said,

(01:20:13):
man I'd love to see Aiden Morris, who was the
starter over Zawatski at Columbus, who just got three men
of the match days at Middlesborough in the championship. You
know there are these plug and play I mean, listen,
but I also think it's as I say all that, man,
I feel like I'm part of the problem too, because
shouldn't in my mind, theoretically, shouldn't I be like looking

(01:20:37):
at the MLS guys and saying, yeah, man, good for you.
Like each week, weekend, week out, you're tested at an
MLS level. There's no higher lows. The equity of performance
and quality is really the same. The jeopardy looks similar
without the conversation of pro rew and like, shouldn't we
want to reward guys outside of meaningless January friendlies against

(01:20:59):
Venezuela and you know, a second Costa Rica team. Shouldn't
we want to see these guys play against the highest
caliber of opponent. And so that's where I'm kind of
like stuck. Spence and I think a lot of us
are stuck as fans. We're trying to say, God, you know,
I really had high expectations. We've labeled this group couldn't

(01:21:19):
we want to see this group continue to play each
and every game, and instead we're kind of like, oh, wha,
wha wha Wait a second, why is he taking risk?

Speaker 3 (01:21:28):
Right now?

Speaker 4 (01:21:29):
There's no time for risk. This is urgency. And I
think that's kind of the weird nuance to all of
this is how are we adjusting the verbiage surrounding our
expectations and do we need to change our expectations or
should we? By the way, listen to a guy that
was one bad decision and I'm going to rip off

(01:21:52):
of a really sore subject for you, Spence, one bad
decision of winning a Champions League not too long ago. God,
he really doesn't know what he's doing. Maybe we should
step back a second and put some more blind faith
into his process as opposed to how we view the
game and how we think the game you know, should
be absorbed and applied here in the United States. It's

(01:22:14):
a really weird, weird situation right now for all of us.

Speaker 1 (01:22:17):
What about And look, I know we could hone in
on probably different and you know, more nuanced positional conversations.
They're just not dangerous in the attack. Like I feel
like Kerry Tally has scored more recently than Josh Sargent has.

Speaker 2 (01:22:29):
Like he Jesus got him, got him.

Speaker 3 (01:22:34):
That is a deep cut.

Speaker 2 (01:22:35):
Got him. That is a deep That is a deep cut.

Speaker 4 (01:22:38):
That I did drop Luke Treblemyer.

Speaker 2 (01:22:40):
Yeah, the laser, the laser himself.

Speaker 1 (01:22:42):
I felt like the Balligan kid came in and played
pretty well. But who are the best strikers in the
pool that we need to see more of?

Speaker 4 (01:22:51):
I mean, one would suggest that Flow Balligan was always
going to be our number one, number nine. That was
you know, to an happier ago. We were publicly you know,
an adoring fans. We're trying to convince them to make
the one time switch from England and come on over.
But since then, he's been banged up. Man, He's for

(01:23:13):
the better part of the last year and a half
he's been injured. He's been dealing with like shoulder issues,
ankle issues, and now there's concern like, you know, Josh
Sargent's got five goals and four games in the Championship,
which is effectively English second Division. But at the same
time Slow's only been back for one game. And so
even in that conversation, you know, Chris Richards has a

(01:23:35):
bit of a knock, and that's why you know a
guy like Tristan Blackman starts. There's these weird little subplots behind,
you know, behind the scenes that maybe change some of
the expectations of why to play. But yeah, I would
say flow Baaligan's number one. And then you have a
weird conversation whether it's Joss Stargent's success over at North

(01:23:56):
City versus Ricardo Peppi's success over in Eindhoven, as you
kind of trickle a little bit deeper than you start
to get in the weeds of who effectively is reliable
off the bench and not necessarily a starter, like these
impact subs that know their roles, versus who's maybe like
the blind outlier that comes out of nowhere and makes

(01:24:19):
a roster a la a Hercules Gomez in twenty ten,
a Robbie Finley, Charlie Davies even at Chris Londolowski.

Speaker 3 (01:24:29):
So those are some of.

Speaker 4 (01:24:30):
The guys that were kind of like waiting to see
is there a blind outlier in this conversation, But right
now it's seemingly going to be between Flaren Balligen, Josh Sargent,
and Ricardo Peppi For the one of that whoever plays
in that singular number nine position before we.

Speaker 2 (01:24:46):
Move over to ours.

Speaker 1 (01:24:47):
Well, I feel like well, certainly, when you look at
the players that have benefited most from Pochettino's appointment as manager,
Diego's among them. He's played a lot of minutes since
the since the change, and according to the player grades
that I have in front of me, Diego is one
of the brighter spots.

Speaker 2 (01:25:06):
Even though it was a loss.

Speaker 1 (01:25:07):
Are we moving into a space, Doney where it feels
like he's not just a lock to make the roster,
but he might have something to say about I don't know,
starting or playing a lot during the World Cup.

Speaker 4 (01:25:18):
I think he makes the roster without shout of a doubt.
I just saw him last night. I thought he was
good against Korea. I think instinctially, he's got to find
a balance of wanting to influence the game so bad
that there's a little bit of a lack of discipline
in moments. And what I mean by that is an

(01:25:40):
understanding that you don't have to go all the way deep,
and when you do go all the way deep, there's
a you know, there's a key to Tater effect of
now that vacated space means that there's not a US
men's national team player in that space operating. I like
the idea of going three in the back because I
think that that would allow Christian and he or als

(01:26:03):
in Dejas to play his dual tins in the pocket
and then kind of pop up in more dangerous spots.

Speaker 10 (01:26:10):
But yeah, listen, I think I think.

Speaker 4 (01:26:12):
What Diego has done in a short amount of time
has raised his profile to the point where every time
I'm around, every time I see him publicly, there are
people coming up to him. He's become that that recognizable
after that stratospiric you know, performance in the Gold Cup.
So I think he's pushing for a starting spot. I

(01:26:33):
think he's gonna have to share the opportunity with Zindjas,
who has been excellent at Club America over the last
couple of years. You know, Christian Politic is going to
start without a shadow of a doubt. If there is
a change in the the starting leven, what does that
mean for guys like Brendan Ronson, who's not here at
sam Uya, some of the more out and out winger guys.

(01:26:56):
But with the lack of production and consistency, of performance.
With Geo Reina now making his move to Bruscia much
in Gladbach. Right now, there's no reason why Diego can't
have a serious, serious run as a really important focal
point for the US men's national team.

Speaker 1 (01:27:15):
All right, Donny, before I said you loose, Uh, it
got late early for RSL with a really really bad
start to the season. The form turned around and it
looked like they were going to figure it out. Uh
and now uh form, bad form combined with bad luck
has them in a precarious spot with seven matches left.
And by the way, what a dumb break, Like are

(01:27:35):
you kidding me? We're waiting a month in the fall
to actually play again. And if you want to, if
you want to take it on the positive side, you know,
Rawan Cruz, the Olatunji kid. You know some additions, you
can maybe have a mini training camp before the stretch run. Obviously,
DeAndre jedlands in the right exactly exactly and DeAndre jedlands
in the in the fold now too, Saturday feels like

(01:27:57):
I must win.

Speaker 2 (01:27:57):
H case is not great this year.

Speaker 1 (01:28:00):
Your confidence level on RSL potentially qualifying for MLS Cup
playoffs over the final seven games sounds like what.

Speaker 4 (01:28:09):
Yeah, I'm not sure because I you know, they let
it get away from them, you know, the trip to
and again combination of bad luck including referees decisions that
were looked down upon from from their leadership, decision that
takes out Luna with a red card based on a
double yellow that means a double suspension for the game

(01:28:31):
in Charlotte, which is another moment where you feel like
you can't generate and manufacture momentum because it feels like
the referees are against you with some of these minuscule
decisions going against weal saw Lake. And I'm not trying
to put it on the reps. It just it happens.
But the idea of that like it all levels out
at the end of the season is complete BS toiny.
I've always thought it was BS.

Speaker 3 (01:28:53):
Yeah.

Speaker 4 (01:28:53):
And the backside is that the game that I was
supposed to be on calling the game, the Seattle Arcel
game gets postponed because they end up in the US
Cup Final and ultimately beating Miami and lifting a league
stup trophy. So in all of this I would have said,
in normal terms, yes, then it's of course it benefits
real Salt Lake but Rawan Cruz and Olatunji. That's great,

(01:29:16):
they're going to get an opportunity to acclimate. But Diego
Luna is not there because he's here with the Usman
national team. That it was, Yeah, DeAndre Yedlin, he's in
with the team, but he picked up a really unnecessary
yellow card and he was sitting on yellow card accumulation
from his time at Cincinnati, so he won't to be
available this weekend. So all of these moments you think

(01:29:37):
are like, yes, we're putting the pieces of puzzles correctly,
and then all of a sudden, you know, a little
kids coming over and smacking it to the floor. So listen,
I mean, what do you I don't even know where
to start, you know, it's it's we can talk about formation.
I'll go whatever direction you want to go. But we
can talk about formation, we can talk about availability, talk

(01:29:58):
about referees, we can talk about theoretically what we think
this team needs to do to make the playoffs in
terms of points. But I mean, if you're going to
give up a corner kick three minutes in due to
a miscommunication and then find yourself down on the next
service of a deflected own goal, that's that's tough. That's

(01:30:19):
really really tough to overcome. So my hope is that
Pablo and the staff figure out a way to manufacture
the momentum psychologically with urgency and a team that while
they have games in hand, similar to the conversation with
inter Miami and similar to the conversation with LFC, that
doesn't equate to natural points. So you've got a short

(01:30:42):
amount of time with a lot of games, and how
can you find the momentum of success as well as
confidence to get yourself back apove the playoff line. The
sale is a team. It absolutely hurt the group in
terms of acquisitions. In the start of the year, they've
countered that with the Millers throwing significant money their way

(01:31:03):
to try to help offset in the summer transfer window
what exactly they needed. But now you can't even talk.
Now it's about proof and concepts. And for Pablo, I
know he has the sense of urgency. My hope is
the players have this sense of urgency because with the
turnover behind the scenes, I hope these guys realize that

(01:31:24):
if they don't get the job done and they don't
get over the line, there's going to be a lot
of guys looking for a new job, and maybe some
guys never playing professional soccer again.

Speaker 1 (01:31:33):
All right, my friend, Well, I appreciate the time, enjoy
the experience. You're killing it over there on the call.
We'll be watching and hoping for better things ahead. And
let's chat soon, Bud.

Speaker 2 (01:31:41):
Thank you.

Speaker 4 (01:31:43):
I appreciate it. It's just for you. The salmon suits
coming out here in sea bus tomorrow night.

Speaker 1 (01:31:48):
Not a guy, can't wait, can't wait? Instagram live it, buddy,
will you.

Speaker 3 (01:31:52):
Of course?

Speaker 4 (01:31:53):
Of course?

Speaker 2 (01:31:53):
Nice, very nice, Thanks Donnie.

Speaker 10 (01:31:55):
We'll talk too, mud all right.

Speaker 1 (01:31:56):
Brian don Seth RSL legend ten years in MLS, captain
of the US men's soccer team back in their Olympic
days once upon a time, and now analysts on Apple TV,
and he will be along for the World Cup broadcast
with our friends at Turner Sports. Not good, not great, Bob,
as the kids say, a rough loss to South Korea,
and then it's Japan. We are nine months away from

(01:32:17):
the World Cup and our soccer club does not look
even close to ready. RSL Insider brought to you today
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Speaker 2 (01:32:49):
All right, show rolling along today.

Speaker 1 (01:32:50):
Before we catch a break, we welcome into my friend
Jeff Road from my hearing center.

Speaker 2 (01:32:54):
Jeff, how are you, sir?

Speaker 8 (01:32:55):
Doing well? Thank you?

Speaker 2 (01:32:56):
Thanks for the time today.

Speaker 1 (01:32:57):
So, if somebody is suffering from partial cure loss, what
are the risks that they run if they don't get
in front of it and find solutions right away.

Speaker 9 (01:33:06):
Well, you know, there's a lot of studies that have
shown a correlation between hearing loss and things like dementia
and Alzheimer's. What seems to happen is the brain kind
of shuts that auditory nerve down somewhat and it's not
going to function as well as it normally does if
it's not getting the auditory input. So what happens is

(01:33:30):
they see in these studies that there is an increased
risk for diseases like dementia and Alzheimer's.

Speaker 1 (01:33:36):
And also, I mean, bottom line, you're hearing connects you
to the world. You know, it helps you understand if
there's potential dangers. And who doesn't want to experience the
beautiful joys of listening to.

Speaker 2 (01:33:45):
Music or nature.

Speaker 1 (01:33:46):
So things like that also may not be as tangible,
but certainly issues you don't want to you know, you
don't want to run into.

Speaker 8 (01:33:52):
Absolutely.

Speaker 9 (01:33:53):
I had an experience with a patient that came in
one time and the wife and husband came together and
the wife said, you know why we're here to and
I said, no, why and she said because I was
downtown with my husband and he went to step off
the curb because he didn't hear a car coming and
he almost got hit.

Speaker 8 (01:34:10):
And she said, that's why I'm bringing him in today.

Speaker 3 (01:34:13):
Wow.

Speaker 1 (01:34:13):
Wow, Okay, So how can hearing aids and specifically what
we're talking about today, your new technology help folks that
are suffering from partial hearing laws.

Speaker 9 (01:34:21):
Well, you know what a hearing aid does is it
helps in the ranges that you are not hearing sounds
very well. It helps to make the sounds more clear.
It amplifies those sounds, and that means that instead of
missing a word because you can't maybe hear the consonant
sounds other parts of the word, you're going to pick

(01:34:43):
up the whole word again instead of just getting bits
and pieces of it, so your brain's going to be
able to put it all together. You're going to hear
things more clearly, and that means you're going to understand
as people are talking to you. You aren't going to
make the mistake thinking they said one word and they
said something totally different, for sure.

Speaker 1 (01:35:01):
So we're talking about some new technology with hearing aids
called Signia bctix. What makes this technology unique? What should
our listeners know about the technology.

Speaker 9 (01:35:09):
Well, there's a lot of great features that mean that
you're going to hear better. But one of the things
that is really unique is the fact that it will
follow a voice around the room and it will pick
up that voice because there's a multi stream processor build
into these new hearing aids and it will pick it
up even in a noisy environment. So that voice is

(01:35:31):
going to be more clear and more audible to you
as you're trying to listen to someone.

Speaker 1 (01:35:35):
And also we should be very clear that these hearing
aids aren't your grandma's hearing aids. It doesn't look like
you have two bananas on your ears. The first time
somebody in studio showed them to me, they almost look
like Apple air pods, but even smaller, even more discreet.

Speaker 2 (01:35:48):
So talk about that. Talk about the.

Speaker 9 (01:35:50):
Design, well, the design is meant obviously to be kind
of almost invisible when you're wearing, and people really don't
notice for the most part that you're wearing hearing aids
unless they maybe get really close or something. But that's
one thing that there's a lot of technology packed into
a very small device, and that also means that it's

(01:36:12):
going to be easier to take care of.

Speaker 8 (01:36:13):
It's easier to wear because.

Speaker 9 (01:36:15):
Being smaller behind your ear, you don't feel it as much,
and it's very lightweight.

Speaker 1 (01:36:19):
You could also stream your favorite TV show, listen to
your favorite music, take phone calls, hands free calling capability.
The batteries charge thirty six hours a battery on a charge.
In addition to that, you can make adjustments on the app.

Speaker 9 (01:36:33):
Absolutely there's a great app that you can use with
it that allows you to adjust it if you're finding
that maybe you're in a noisy environment. Maybe you're at
the stadium and you're watching a football game and you
need to turn those suckers down a little bit because
you don't need all that noise.

Speaker 8 (01:36:48):
You can do that right on the app.

Speaker 9 (01:36:49):
You can also ask it to help you with certain
things that you might be having problems with, and it's
got an AI assistant that will actually make adjustments to
them for you.

Speaker 1 (01:36:59):
Amazing, Jeff, the special offer you for our listeners will
give you a call today.

Speaker 9 (01:37:02):
Well, we want fifty listeners to come in and for
thirty days we want them to try out these new
bctix devices and see how they work for them.

Speaker 1 (01:37:12):
Ten locations across the wallside front, so wherever you're listening,
there is a my Hearing Center's location close to you.

Speaker 2 (01:37:18):
Take advantage of this deal.

Speaker 1 (01:37:20):
If you've been putting this off for a while, maybe
some friends or family members have noticed that you're not
necessarily able to hear conversations or music sounds different, whatever
it is, today's the day to do this because it's
a great deal. Give them a call to schedule your
appointment today at eight oh one, seven oh one one
nine two four. Scott Mitchell stops by for his weekly
visit on a Monday afternoon. Scott, my first question right

(01:37:43):
out of the gates is what's your best Monday night
football memory as a player. What's your worst Monday night
football injury is memory as a player?

Speaker 3 (01:37:52):
Oh man, that's a great question, and I love I
love Monday night football and had some awesome games. We
started going three in Detroit. We were playing the World
champions forty nine ers toasted them, went to Dallas playing
the raigning World champ Dallas Cowboys beat him in overtime.
Those were some big Monday night games, huge, huge games,

(01:38:16):
so they were so fun. I think the one though,
that I love the most was the very first one,
and it was when I was playing for the Miami Dolphins.
It's one Monday night football kind of rained the world.
I mean, it was the biggest of big deals to
be on Monday night football. And I drove to the
stadium and the blimp was circling the stadium and we

(01:38:38):
were playing the Raiders, and it was like, oh wow,
this is different, and it was just it was just
and I didn't even play in that game, but it
was just okay, this is the pageantry of Monday night football,
and just really got to take sport. So yeah, and
I was fortunate to do that. Probably worst Monday Night
was I think we played in San Diego one year

(01:39:02):
and and uh we lost that game. I didn't play
very good in that game, so but I was I
was pretty good on Monday Night. I actually like Monday
night football.

Speaker 2 (01:39:12):
So as a player.

Speaker 1 (01:39:14):
So as a player it does land differently like as
a consumer you watch Monday night football, it feels different
and feels like a production and a big deal. As
a guy that played on Monday night footballunder those lights,
it does have an extra like level of gravitas.

Speaker 3 (01:39:28):
Oh one thousand percent. I mean, look, you know when
the stage, your your front center on the biggest stage,
and that was that was really the biggest stage in
the regular season for the NFL, and everyone watched, you know,
there weren't any other games going on. It was after hours,
you know, so people weren't at work, and in fact
it was it was kind of funny in Detroit because

(01:39:50):
because it was late at night, you know, it started
at nine o'clock on the on the East coast, and
so it gave people, you know, a good a good
day to kind of get liquored up. And and on
a normal Sunday, you'd have like one, maybe two fights
on a one o'clock game on Monday. Fight on Monday
night it was at least five, and it'd go to

(01:40:10):
maybe seven fights would breakout in the stands on a
Monday night. But oh gus, Monday Night was just was
awesome good stuff.

Speaker 1 (01:40:19):
Monday Night football tonight between the Bears and the Vikings
comes away in just a bed. You can hear it
on our station. All right, Scott, let's move over the utes.

Speaker 2 (01:40:25):
Now. I'm gonna ask you a question. I've asked a
couple of guests today.

Speaker 1 (01:40:29):
Through two games, what do you feel like you know
about this football team.

Speaker 3 (01:40:36):
You know that there's guys that are going to consistently
perform for you. You know they're always going to be there.
You know this defense is going to show up. You
know that. You know you're going to see you know,
the stars have a line. The stars are going to
come out. They're gonna make plays for you. You're gonna have
guys that make plays defensively, you know, and they haven't

(01:40:57):
totally all shown up yet, but you know, Lander Barton
is going to be there. You saw a little bit
of what Jonah Hall Is looks like this year from
from this last week. Uh, there's you know, they're just
they're just really really solid. You're going to get a
great pass rush this year from this team. Uh, you
didn't see that a lot. And they're just so deep,
you know, is they're not relying on a guy or

(01:41:18):
a guy and a half on the edge to get
to get a pressure on the quarterback. You're going to
have a quarterback that's gonna be elusive. Uh, he's going
to keep you in a lot of plays offensively, and
you know you have a very very deep and and
very solid offensive line. You What I know is I

(01:41:40):
just know that this team is going to compete every
week to win every game really that they play the
rest of this year.

Speaker 1 (01:41:47):
Through two games, Scott, what are you still hoping to
learn about Utah football?

Speaker 3 (01:41:54):
Well? And I think they were trying to figure it
out a little bit on on Saturday. I don't I
don't know if they're if they are or I am
comfortable with with the just the plane throw game, you know,
no play action no roll out, no the drop back

(01:42:16):
and read the coverage and make a throw. I don't
I'm not comfortable with that. I don't think they are.
I don't think it's Devin dampier strengths. I think he
can do it. I don't think it is going to
be something that they're going to totally rely on. I
think they're still trying to figure out. You know, everyone
talks about the wide receivers and you know, getting the

(01:42:39):
ball to them at which which I you know, it's
still somewhat of a question mark, you know, but Ryan
Davis looked good, Tobias meriwether they got the ball to
those guys. I don't know that Devin damn Pierfields is
comfortable with it. So it's it's him. It's goods him
as much as it is them, And I don't know
it yet. I don't know if they are comfortable with it.

Speaker 1 (01:43:00):
Tone in on the quarterback, the position you played at
the highest of levels. Just I'll last you kind of
the same question through two games.

Speaker 2 (01:43:07):
The good and the bad about Devin.

Speaker 1 (01:43:09):
What what you've liked and what you're still hoping to
either learn about him or see him progress with?

Speaker 3 (01:43:16):
Well? What what Devin does so extremely well. Is he
just and it's a super and it's a superpower. Is
he he just he avoids sacks. I mean, he did
get sacked the one time, but that's just very very uncharacteristic.
It's not going to happen a lot during the year.
He's going to extend a lot of plays.

Speaker 1 (01:43:37):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (01:43:37):
He's super, super elusive. Uh. And and I I just
have really liked that. I love how just his personality,
his persona and I've described it from the time you
got here, is this is this outward facing personality and
and it's infectious. And he wants to be under the lights.

(01:43:59):
He wants to be the quarterback. He wants to be
the guy that makes plays. And his demeanor is something
that I think his teammates and coaches have certainly latched onto.
He's a guy that's you know, loves playing football. And
it just shows it's still the thing, and it's it's

(01:44:22):
really it's throwing the ball in a traditional in the pocket,
you know here, drop back, read it and throw it
kind of thing. It's still a work in progress, and
I mean it's the one thing I guess, you know,
to answer your question, but it's not one that I'm
overly concerned about, because you can generate and create great

(01:44:43):
offense and you don't have to do that. I mean,
Tyler Huntly wasn't that kind of player. Neither was Cam Rising.
They weren't guys that were just gonna sit in the pocket,
per se and throw. Maybe Cam a little bit more
than Tyler, But where they were really special is just
making plays when nothing was there. They were really good
at converting third downs and a lot of times converting

(01:45:05):
it on their own. And Devin's the same type of players.
So yeah, it's a concern, but it's not a deal
killer for me.

Speaker 1 (01:45:13):
Offensive line continues to look the way that we all
thought that they would. Of course, Jaron Kump held out
for precautionary reasons. Just got to continue the conversation in
this same vein your impressions of this highly touted offensive
line through two football games so far, Well.

Speaker 3 (01:45:30):
They've certainly lived up to the expectations, and they've they've
talked about the depth they have. They got eight to
ten guys that can really play. You know, I think
it almost looked like the twos were better than the
ones on Saturday. Across the board, not just on the
offensive line, but when they were interspersing a lot of
other players in that second half, you just didn't see

(01:45:52):
a drop off anywhere. But you know, and that's the
way it was with that offensive line. And typically you
don't sub guys during a game the offensive line, and
you don't want to. But if you can have eight
or nine guys, that's huge because you're you're always going
to get somebody nicked up. You're always gonna you know,
there's someone's gonna get hurt and a lot of times,

(01:46:16):
and you want to be able to just go on
and not have any you know, any changes. You don't
want to be limited because you're you really are as
limited as that week that weakest guy, and you you
you have to protect that guy if he's if he's
not up to stuff, and and I don't think that's
the case with this offensive line. So it's just got

(01:46:36):
incredible depth that just allows you to continue to, uh,
you know, play play your same offense and do everything
that you you want to do.

Speaker 1 (01:46:45):
You reference your gentle concern about maybe not enough comfortability
with you know, just a classic passing game. Devin Dampier
after the game, then coach with this morning we're gonna
play coaches comments in a bid Uh talked about some
of the mental errors that manifested a little bit of
versus cal Poly.

Speaker 2 (01:47:04):
I started the show off with this guy.

Speaker 1 (01:47:06):
You know, I just think human nature, and I want
you to talk about this as a former player.

Speaker 2 (01:47:12):
You go to the Rose Bowl, you smoke Ucla. It
was one of.

Speaker 1 (01:47:15):
The games on the opening weekend that so many people
were excited about because there were so many duds and
not great matchups. I don't think Ucla is very good,
but that's not the point of what I'm asking you.
These are young people, and I just think it's like
inevitable after an opening day's statement like that to look
ahead to cal Poly and just think like we're gonna
smoke them.

Speaker 2 (01:47:35):
And you know to me that look, I know.

Speaker 1 (01:47:38):
The standard is the standard, and the coaching staff ups
up there wants these players to be focused.

Speaker 2 (01:47:42):
At all times.

Speaker 1 (01:47:43):
But a couple errors versus a team you're gonna beat
by a million really isn't overly concerning to me other
than your you know, expression of what you said with
the true passing game, any anything else stand out that
you want to see cleaned up before conference play?

Speaker 3 (01:47:59):
What I guess the most shocking. So to answer your
initial question about is it is it human nature that
we kind of get full of ourselves and we look
past the next week when it's when it's like that, Yeah,
of course, and does that happen, Yes, did it happen
probably to some degree. Uh. But the other the other

(01:48:22):
components that are kind of built into that, and and
I think it was a little bit of the the
offense just didn't run like a smooth, smooth machine, you know,
every single series, And and part of that is I
think I think that Utah was trying to work on
something not necessarily Okay, let's just put this together, like

(01:48:42):
we're going to go for a drive, uh and and
march down the fields. You know, when they played U C.
L A. They'd been preparing for that game for weeks
for months probably so, so they were really clear on
what they were going to run, and they were just there.
You know, it's like, man, we're gonna we're going to
fire every pull it in our gun, and we've got
our gun loaded and we are we are ready to go.

(01:49:04):
And this week it's more like, hey, you know, we
got a couple of guys a little banged up, we're
gonna hold them out. We're gonna hold guys out that maybe,
you know, like Logan Fano could have played, but he didn't.
And so you you see that as a player, and
you go, oh, well, the coaches aren't really you know,
they're not really taking this game as seriously as and
and and so. Sure there's a message one that's not

(01:49:27):
you know, stated, but it's a subliminal message that's sent
out there, not intended to be, but certainly the message
is received the coaches like, yeah, this isn't you know,
because if it's a if it's a regular conference game,
all those guys are playing, Jaron Cump's playing, Logan Fano's
playing Loca Fiesi's playing you know whoever was sitting out.

(01:49:48):
So that's one side of it. But then the other
side of it. Think of like when you're in a
golf tournament and you have a practice round and you
and there and you go out in a practice round
and you go, I need to work on this at
expect of my game. I'm not I don't really care
about my score today. I just I care about developing
this this part of my game. And I think that
was a little bit of what was going on, and

(01:50:10):
it was it was, it was it was a lot
of throw uh and early in in that game with
Devin Dampier and they were trying to get the receivers
involved and which is which is awesome. And I just
looked at it as, hey, they're they're in their practice
round and they're working on you know, their short game
right now or whatever, and and and they're doing it
with with these wide receivers, and so it made things

(01:50:31):
a little disjointed that I don't think would normally be there.
And and really what a blessing to be able to
do that, to to go out and to work on
aspects of of your you know, your your your your
personnel and your repertoire and and and and you know
that that's that to me is why these games are

(01:50:52):
so awesome and they're such you know, they're such a
blessing to me. Spence. The biggest impressive thing I've seen
though from this this whole Utah team, is how well
they've executed in trying to get all these guys involved,
like you only have so many reps to practice this
every week, and to get Hunter Andrews involved in, to

(01:51:15):
get Nate Johnson involved in Ryan Davis and to get
to buy like you got to practice those plays with
those guys, and a lot of times, you know, it
takes a minute before you get comfortable with that many guys.
So that the execution offensively, with all the different things
they've been trying to do so far, I think is

(01:51:36):
just it's been mind blowing to me quite frankly.

Speaker 1 (01:51:40):
Jason Beck is a play caller through two games, what
stands out, what's unique, what's new, what's different, what's special?
And you referenced a couple of times maybe keeping some
things close to the chest. You think, what you know,
once conference play starts, we're going to see even more
of an expanded Jason Beck playbook.

Speaker 3 (01:51:59):
So I talk Kyle about this after the game and
just said, you know, how hard is it for a
defensive coach with with the type of things you're doing
offensively and and you can't just dial into one player
or one you know, you can't dial into Devin Dampierre
because Devin dan Pier is surrounded by some you know, talent,
and and they don't care where they've got it. I mean,

(01:52:20):
they've they've brought guys over from the defense and Smith, Snowden, Jackson,
Benny you know, Blander. I mean, those are three very
talented guys, and they're none of the offensive guys. And
then you throw in some of these other you know,
these other guys offensively. I mean, way Shawn Parker, you know,
he scored two touchdowns in the game untouched. Uh and

(01:52:41):
and and he's I think he's just a great I
love the running backs, you know, to carry Parker and
both of both those guys, and so, uh, it makes
it so hard to dial into into one thing. And
so what it forces you to do is you kind
of have to go vanilla. You got to just you
just have to, you know, just make sure you're just

(01:53:03):
assignment free, and you just try to slow it down
and just say, you know, we're not going to stop it.
Let's just you know, eliminate big plays. Let's make them
work for everything they have. And that puts the boat,
that puts the advantage to the offense because you know,
you're not going to get a lot of crazy looks.
And the challenge to all that, though, is can you

(01:53:25):
keep everyone happy? You know? Can you keep you know,
because there's guys like Smith Snowden who are very talented
or Wayshan he goes, you know, man, maybe I need
more touches. You know, I can't get into a rhythm,
I can't really get to the best part of my
game and until I have too many touches. And so
I think it's it's a challenge to keep everyone happy

(01:53:47):
and to keep everyone productive and to really keep everyone's
mind in the game when you're spreading the ball around
and it's and that's all about ego, right, and so
if everyone can kind of supplant their ego and just
go I'm going to just I'm going to be ready
and I'm going to take my little shot, my little
one part of this offense, it can be a really,
really fun and really productive offense.

Speaker 1 (01:54:09):
I think a lot of conversations Scott as you know,
and Scott Mitchell's with us on the program on a
Monday leading up to the season about the wide receiver
room and targets for Devon with your eye as a
guy who played the quarterback position, how's it gone, what's
the progress? Are there one or two targets that Devin
is peer Devin appears a little bit more comfortable looking

(01:54:30):
at and are there any targets that as a former quarterback.
You look at and say, yeah, they clearly understand the assignment.

Speaker 3 (01:54:38):
Well, I mean you saw you saw him get involved
with with Tobias Meriweather, and you know, and again it's
like you're getting him comfortable, you're getting him assimilated into things.
He's certainly a playmaker. And of course Ryan Davis who
played with Jason and and and Devin it's at New Mexico,

(01:55:03):
he really popped off the page and started to make
some good plays. And you know, the guy that they
are really high on is Jackson Benny as a wide
receiver and he and you haven't seen quite seen that yet,
and I think he's I think he's one of the
guys offensively in the wide receiver position that you might

(01:55:26):
see a lot of this week, and you might see
a lot of moving forward. And then the guy who's
been out is Gadrian Zipper and he's a real talent
and I hope to see him come in because with
this offense. And one of the things they talked about
they missed in the first game was was chunk plays.
And it's crazy the impact chunk plays have get. If

(01:55:50):
you get one play over fifteen yards in a drive
it's almost guaranteed you're going to score like that statistic
is one of the most telling signs of of of
offensive production or chunk plays in a drive. And they
didn't have any in the first game, which is what
makes that game so impressive. But and they did have

(01:56:11):
some last week. But these receivers with speed that can
get down the field can get you those chunk plays.
And they can do it because you tas so good
at running the football and that play action with chunk
throws is a deadly combination and and and yet to
be seen and could be a thing that they're kind
of holding back right now, maybe a little bit, but uh,

(01:56:32):
you know, I'd love I'd love to see a little
bit more of that, you know, right now it's kind
of been man, let's just kind of get everyone touching
the ball and high percentage throws and you know, easy
throws and and and so seeing some of the down
the field stuff is I think is part of this
offense evolving as it as it moves forward.

Speaker 1 (01:56:53):
Interesting you bring that up because I want to move
over to the running backs next. And way Sean has
both the longest rush and the longest reception of the year.

Speaker 2 (01:57:00):
Fifty two yard into the house.

Speaker 1 (01:57:01):
It's actually this solely catch all year than a forty
three yarder as well. But Naquari has more carries twenty
three to Waish on seventeen. Devin is actually second on
the team with twenty. So with these two running backs,
it's always good to have a couple, right. I mean,
it's one thing if you have Derek Henry and you
have a bell cow. But what do you like about
these two and what are the similarities, what are the differences,

(01:57:22):
and what do you make of the distribution so far?

Speaker 3 (01:57:25):
Well, I love I love the combination of these two guys.
And I've loved the downhill running like it's really impressive.
And guys who run downhill to me, are guys that
are pretty confident. You'll find some guys that are run
downhill and they're gonna run into the first thing they see.

(01:57:46):
And these guys have you know, they just hit the
hole so quickly. Of course, you have an offensive line
that really helps define where the hole is. But you
know they're just gonna get you four or five yards
pretty much on every carry, and they and and yet
you can see that there's that ability to to bust

(01:58:07):
you know a play for for a big game and
so and they they haven't. I don't. I don't think
that you know, having a full game to really focus
on that. I mean you did see it the one
time with Wai Shan, but uh, I love these guys.
I love how they run. Uh and and the fact
that you have two of them. Uh, it's just it's

(01:58:30):
just going to put constant pressure on defense. Is you're
not going to get a guy that gets tired and
and and waivers as the game goes on, and even
as the season goes on, and they both have such
a great attitude about everything, you know that one guy's
not going to be complaining over the other one. And
they're they're one of those things you're going to I
think you're going to see a lot of this year,
both of those guys, and and they're going to bring

(01:58:52):
a lot of a lot of run production for this
Yutah team.

Speaker 1 (01:58:55):
I'm hoping that we don't need to see the backup
quarterback other than when the game is over. But so far,
when we have seen the backup quarterback, it has been
Bird Ficklin and not Isaac Wilson. Coach Witt spoke both
postgame then today about the potential of preserving Isaac's redshirt,
which I don't even know that matters in this day.

Speaker 2 (01:59:13):
And age of college football.

Speaker 1 (01:59:15):
But what's your understanding of the dynamic right now as
far as the QB two situation.

Speaker 3 (01:59:21):
Well, if that's the case, you know with and that's
the reason that they were going with Bird because I
thought it was more of, well, we're going to run
the football more now, and I think Bird, for Fickland,
is a better runner than Isaac is, and so that
that was what I thought was happening. But then you
watched him get out there and he's just running the

(01:59:41):
offense like normal and running it like a freaking superstar.
I mean, man, I'd liked his arm in spring and
through camp, but to see it show up and it's
very accurate through the ball, very well. Might's on the
ball better than Devin, might be a better pure passer
than Devin is, but you know, just doesn't have the experience.

(02:00:06):
To me what I saw, and I'm you know, I
said it when it happened. I said, this is this
is the future of Utah football right here. I mean,
I wouldn't even say that they found a backup. I
think they found a super a new a new star
or future star in this offense because he he fits
it so well and and it was just impressive to
see how, you know, how he handled kind of every

(02:00:29):
situation he was in. But but that kid's talented.

Speaker 1 (02:00:33):
I don't know this for sure, but I think there's
probably meat on this bone. During your illustrious career at
the University of Utah, did you ever make the trip
to Laramie, Wyoming?

Speaker 3 (02:00:45):
Okay, Spence, I've been trying to figure out how I
can miss this game. I've never had a good day
in Laramie, Wyoming, and that includes when I wasn't playing football.
I've actually been through Laramie several times driving and I
kid you not every single time Blizzard almost shutting down.

(02:01:07):
I eighty when I've driven through Laramie, Wyoming.

Speaker 7 (02:01:11):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:01:12):
I spent a month there, one night in a hotel,
and and just not really great memories of Laramie.

Speaker 11 (02:01:19):
Uh.

Speaker 3 (02:01:20):
I just shake my head. I've shook my head for years.
I think we had the COVID year. Maybe it was
this game got it got canceled at one time and
I was like, cancel it, never bring it back again.
That being said, I think it's a great test for
Utah because it's a very hostile place. Uh. It's it's

(02:01:40):
it's a tough road environment, it's a good opponent you're facing.
It will be a good last tune up to get
you ready for conference play. And and it's not that
far away, you know, So it's a it's an easy
road trips as from a from a you know, to
wear and tear on a on a team traveling. Uh
but you know, so if if the team's going to

(02:02:02):
show up and they got to show up and show out,
then then I do as well. They look. Yeah, I'm
not I'm not a fan of Laramie Wyoming. None of
it excites me. But we're gonna go. We're going to
go get or done.

Speaker 1 (02:02:15):
I appreciate the enthusiasm Before I set you lose. What
should we hope Saturday looks like? I know you say
quality opponent, Scott, but Utah is a twenty five point favorite.
Uh So I want to hear from you what we
think Saturday should look like. If you're a Utah football
fan and then attendant to the question. According to the numbers,

(02:02:37):
none of these three teams that Utah will play in
non con are very good.

Speaker 2 (02:02:40):
That's just what the data says.

Speaker 1 (02:02:42):
I'm not trying to be disrespectful any concern that maybe
this non conslate does not prepare the group for conference
play when Tech comes into town.

Speaker 3 (02:02:51):
It's it's always a concern none of the teams will
be like like Texas Tech that in that you know
they're gonna they're gonna just come at you throw on
the football and and they're they're gonna it's gonna be
wide open. I mean this last week, I thought cal
Poly actually gave an effort and they they even threw
the ball down the field, uh and took some shots

(02:03:12):
and and they were they were successful on some of them.
And and so these defensive backs, you know, maybe haven't
seen that in game situations. I hope, I hope to
see more of that this week. I remember a few
years ago, Utah played an absolute cupcake non conference schedule.
First first game of the year was that USC, and

(02:03:33):
they those wide receivers at USC just ran ran the
youth out of the building. And they just they they
did not they hadn't seen talent like that. And and
ucl or USC is playing a freshman quarterback, their third
string guy, and uh just and UH, it was an
ugly day for Utah, and I think a lot of
it was because of not not being prepared for the

(02:03:55):
speed of the competition. And so although this is probably
you know, Wyoming's not on par per se with with
UH with Texas Tech, it's it is an improvement over
over last week. And so and it's a tough environment,
so you know, you got to go and and battle
and and for me, it's about this week. It's all

(02:04:15):
about that kind of the dress rehearsal, so almost putting
it all together and just starting some momentum that you
can build on moving into the next week. Because the
game's at ten o'clock in the morning the next week,
so you know, you really got to be ready and
you've got to be firing on all cylinders when you
when you step into that game. And and part of

(02:04:37):
that is just still building that confidence with this with
this team, that getting that game confidence and the momentum
that they've they've really built and that that that to me,
it's about momentum building UH to prepare for the regular seasons.

Speaker 1 (02:04:53):
All right, Scott, thank you, my friend, appreciated get insight there,
have a good weekend.

Speaker 2 (02:04:57):
We'll chat soon, Budge, you got to take care of right.

Speaker 1 (02:05:00):
Scott Mitchell, a former Utah quarterback, dropping some good analysis
on Utah's two and oh start and not a big
fan of Laramie apparently I know Porter was offended there.
But Utah will take on Wyoming coming up on Saturday.

Speaker 2 (02:05:15):
It is a six o'clock kick.

Speaker 1 (02:05:16):
Want to remind you that our pregame coverage we'll begin
at two o'clock on Saturday here on the radio station,
Port will have you taken care of there, and then Bill,
Scott and Sly I'll have the call for you as
Utah is a healthy twenty five point favorite Oprah Wyoming.

Speaker 2 (02:05:30):
And then it gets real.

Speaker 1 (02:05:32):
Texas Tech rolls into town and Fox Big noon kickoff
will be here.

Speaker 2 (02:05:37):
It's a ten am kick.

Speaker 1 (02:05:38):
We will effort Gus Johnson and Joe Klatt on the
program either this week or next before a conference play
gets going.

Speaker 2 (02:05:45):
So it's about to get real.

Speaker 1 (02:05:46):
But the start for Utah fans probably couldn't be much better,
as they are two and up all right before catch
a break, don't forget, We'll let you hear from coach
Wick coming up on the other side. But Week one
of the NFL is about to wrap up. Got three
weeks to college football. And if you don't have all
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Speaker 1 (02:07:53):
Happy Monday to you. Hope you had a great weekend.
Do you have any weird like physical quirks. Like I'll
give you an example. I just sneezed right before we
came back on air. I am a unusually violent sneezer, Okay,
Like I'm marvel at people that sneeze quietly. If I
have to sneeze and I'm in a public place, everyone

(02:08:14):
turns a look because it's very loud. I don't know
why it has been since I was a kid. I'm
a very loud sneezer. Do you have anything weird like
a quirk like that? Nothing really like that?

Speaker 2 (02:08:24):
Like do you snore?

Speaker 3 (02:08:25):
No?

Speaker 2 (02:08:26):
I grew like I grew up with a lisp. You
saw the time I forgot about that.

Speaker 5 (02:08:30):
Sometimes if you listen close enough, you'll hear it kind
of squeak through. Okay, mine are all like it is
because I broke thirty bones growing up through it. Totally
fix all of them. So I've got like an elbow
that I kind of double jointed.

Speaker 2 (02:08:42):
I can do some weird.

Speaker 10 (02:08:43):
Stuff with.

Speaker 5 (02:08:45):
Now, chip teeth, broken nose. I just don't fix my
broken bones. So that those are my my physical quirks.

Speaker 1 (02:08:53):
You just let them heal on their own. My pinkies
are double jointed. There you go both of them. It's
kind of weird. I was told that made me a
good shooter. Larry Bird's pinkies are double jointed. Okay, little
known fact.

Speaker 5 (02:09:03):
Okay, I always did wonder. Like, clearly, shooting is a
repetition thing, as is golf, as is you know, the
the tedious things in sports. But there are three men
with the last name Curry in like the top fifty
to seventy five all time of efficient shooting in the NBA.

Speaker 2 (02:09:20):
There's something there's something.

Speaker 1 (02:09:21):
There, something genetic in the ability to shoot the three.

Speaker 5 (02:09:24):
Maybe even just like you're like you were saying something
that helps you get a little bit of an edge
on the like the hand eye coordination or I don't know,
a double joint of pinky or something.

Speaker 1 (02:09:34):
Okay, just struck me. I feel like I'm such an
unusually loud sneezer. I think it's such a weird thing.
Maybe it's good. That means you can get in the
demons out, clearing it all out. Yeah, it's an allergy
season for your boy over here. All right, we'll get
into the five o'clock hour of the program. Don't forget
Monday Night Football. Tonight concludes week one of the NFL.
It is the Vikings and the Bears in Chicago. Potential

(02:09:55):
inclement weather there, so stay tuned for that. But as
we do every Monday during the college football season. In
case you missed it, here's the head coach of Utah football.
Coach went.

Speaker 12 (02:10:07):
Clean others.

Speaker 14 (02:10:08):
I don't think we hit a rhythm in a groove
on offense as well as we did the week before.
That was evidence by punting when we punt four times
I think in this past game, where last week we
punted once. However, another game of zero turnovers, which is
great defense, better tackle willis four tackles the entire game,

(02:10:31):
and so that was a step forward in that regard.
A few more penalties than we had the week before,
so that was something not as clean as well. But overall,
we took care of business, came out of the game
fairly healthy, and it's now onto Wyoming road trip up
and Laramie. No stranger to our coaching staff, you know

(02:10:53):
the place.

Speaker 12 (02:10:54):
But I don't know.

Speaker 14 (02:10:56):
I would doubt any of our players have played well.
Justin stevens at our receiver obviously played there, but otherwise
I'm not sure many of our guys have been to
uh to lerrmiwhoaming to play a game, so so it'll
be a new experience for them. But uh, you know,
I thought Devin uh performed well again. Uh he's you know,
around eighty percent completion percentage for the season, which is outstanding.

(02:11:18):
We knew that was something that we wanted to work on,
and he worked diligently at that.

Speaker 12 (02:11:22):
And then through two games.

Speaker 14 (02:11:24):
It's only two games, you can get too far ahead
of ourselves, but through two games, Uh, he's definitely made
big strides in that regard as well as protecting the football.

Speaker 12 (02:11:33):
So questions.

Speaker 11 (02:11:37):
This is Justin's question.

Speaker 5 (02:11:39):
He said, why amen, coming up?

Speaker 12 (02:11:40):
What are the challenges that your team pays playing in
their room. Well, it's always a hostile crowd.

Speaker 14 (02:11:45):
You know, my memory of as a player and and
of coaching there is, uh they'll get after you pretty good. Uh,
the crowd will. And so it's uh it's an you
know environment you gotta be able to handle.

Speaker 12 (02:11:56):
Uh.

Speaker 14 (02:11:56):
The elevation for us shouldn't be a big deal. You know,
it's a uh couple thousand feet higher, but it were
U s stalidation, So I don't don't expect that to
be an issue. We just got to go up there
and play our game, play well and take care of
the football, run efficiently, you know, get chunk yards. That
was another thing we did in the game Saturdays. We
had more chunk yard plays and we did the week previously.

(02:12:18):
We had eight plays of fifteen yards or more and
so that was a positive. But we just got to
go up and play good football and prepare.

Speaker 12 (02:12:28):
The key will be in the preparation.

Speaker 14 (02:12:29):
You know, Monday through Friday is when the games are
won or lost, and so we got to have a
great week of practice, which we have had the first
two weeks of the season. And that's just kind of
how the season goes. You just show up, care and repeat.
That's how it works.

Speaker 15 (02:12:44):
Has a QP two spot changed for you with Bird
that guy or kind of how do you see that MS?

Speaker 14 (02:12:49):
Not necessarily, As we talked last week, Isaac Wilson does
have a red shirt year. That combined with wanting to
find out more about bird in life situation has led
to what you've seen the last couple of weeks. But
no to to you know, if it was a long
term situation, then not saying that that has necessarily changed.

Speaker 12 (02:13:07):
But BYRD did do do a great job.

Speaker 14 (02:13:09):
I thought he really handled the the offense well. Uh,
played a full quarter and a half, uh four for
four throwing the ball, had a really nice run uh
on the on the touchdown run, and really looked poise
and and did some good things. So so it's still
a uh, you know, a work in progress. But but
uh or he is still a work in progress. But

(02:13:31):
but I wouldn't say the depth is necessarily changed right now.

Speaker 11 (02:13:35):
Coach, how would you describe kind of the progression of
the passing And there's been a lot of easy checks.

Speaker 12 (02:13:41):
With with Dan Pierce, how do you describe the progression.

Speaker 14 (02:13:44):
Yeah, I think it's something that needs to continue to improve.
I think it's it's off to a pretty good start,
but not real Uh explosive. I guess it's the proper word.
We haven't had a lot of explosive plays in the
throw game.

Speaker 3 (02:13:56):
Uh.

Speaker 12 (02:13:56):
Although Waishon's you know, it was a short throw, long run.

Speaker 14 (02:13:59):
But he you know, he went for fifty plus and
I think he saw some of the speed. Not to
change the subject, but way Shawn has really good speed.
He got out he got out on that run as well,
Uh forty something yards in the run. So but but
we've got to continue to uh push them all up
the field more often. I think, Noah, Benny, Uh, it
needs to become a little more involved involved in that.

(02:14:20):
And that's why he's playing uh over there portion of
the time is to is to help us stretch the
field vertically.

Speaker 12 (02:14:26):
Coaching that let of experienced play you learned as a
as a player many times.

Speaker 11 (02:14:30):
Yeah, do you have any memories that maybe stick out
as playing a Uh.

Speaker 14 (02:14:35):
Well, I wanna I remember, I know my Uh was
it our s our senior year when I was a
player junior went up there and got beaten a snow store.
That was a miserable experience. It was uh it was
freezing cold and and uh and we lost that game,
which uh, you know, we didn't lose a lot of games,
but that was one. And then uh coaching wise, uh,
I can't remember what year it was, but we had

(02:14:56):
those flame throwers not flame throwers but heat torpedo heat
or whatever they are on the sideline and uh, my
dad was coaching with us at the time and got
too close to it.

Speaker 12 (02:15:04):
This pants started off and so we had to douse
him with with the water and get the get.

Speaker 14 (02:15:09):
The pants out. And so that was that was a
fairly light humorous moment there.

Speaker 12 (02:15:14):
But yeah, just kind of follow up on that.

Speaker 7 (02:15:16):
I mean, they don't get a lot of big quo
teams coming out and we went last year, but this
is uh, they they can beat you or a good game,
this is kind of their season. How do you treat
like their emotional level was going to be all the time?

Speaker 14 (02:15:30):
Yeah, well we got to understand that as a team,
and we got it. You know, we thought we did
a good job preparing last week knowing that you know,
cal Poly was essentially you know, everything to gain, nothing
to lose against us, and and uh, you know, any
time you take anyone for granted or don't understand the
dynamics of the game, then you know, bad things can happen.
But our guys are smart guys. They understand exactly what

(02:15:51):
you just said. And and uh, we've got to, like
I said, prepare with the same intention and the same
efficiency and the same work I think that we have,
you know, any other game.

Speaker 12 (02:16:02):
So it's gotta be the case.

Speaker 7 (02:16:03):
And then traditionally you've had a lot of bell cow
pats one those.

Speaker 1 (02:16:07):
On the sideline that's the other day is.

Speaker 12 (02:16:09):
At Now.

Speaker 7 (02:16:11):
What are the dangers that had in this one two
punch and Racheald was saying, they don't have a nickname yet,
do you have anything.

Speaker 14 (02:16:18):
I don't have a nickname, but I can tell you
that we have had bike committee in the past in
certain years and other years, as you mentioned, the lead guy,
and really the bottom line is the overall output. And
we've rushed for nearly three hundred yards both games, and
so we're getting what we need right now. And it
was good to see as you mentioned that Devin did

(02:16:39):
a good job breaking out some runs and avoiding hits.
Did a much better job this week of staying out
of harm's way than last week. And and so that's
big to get what we get from him, but yet
keep him, keep him up right and so and it's
not just the two running packs. You know, Hunter Andrews
gives us some running rushing yards, Smith Snowden gives us
some rushing yards. Nate John and Gabis rushing yards. So

(02:17:02):
it's more than just the two guys. But but as
long as there one in one, a will continue with it.
If one of them separates themselves, then we'll go that direction.

Speaker 5 (02:17:11):
After watching the tape, what do you think you need
to clean up in this in terms of coverage adding
into couples.

Speaker 14 (02:17:18):
Too many turning guys loose up the field. That's due
to poor eyes. You know, eyes Typically you get young defenders,
and I consider Jackson Benny and a young defender because
he hasn't played much game time experience on the defensive
in the defensive secondary and and his eyes got bad
on occasion.

Speaker 12 (02:17:37):
That that's really the key.

Speaker 14 (02:17:38):
The key is disciplined eyes, and particularly in man coverage,
because we're a heavy man coverage team. And as soon
as you start getting nosy and looking in the backfield,
you're gonna lose your guy, get separation. And and that
was the case on just about every route that we
turned loose is because of bad eyes.

Speaker 1 (02:17:53):
You had a couple of people saw about on the
offensive line last week, how would you assess, you know,
Alice Harrison and the other guys that maybe stepped in.

Speaker 12 (02:18:01):
Thought they did a good job.

Speaker 14 (02:18:02):
I thought Alex, first of all, you start with his snaps,
because he's the center. That's where it all starts. We
had clean snaps for the most part in the entire game.
Keith Olsen is a guy that played a lot in
the UCLA game, not necessarily at a guard position, but
in a what the rhinover the gorilla packages that we have,
and so I thought they stepped in when pressed into

(02:18:23):
full time duty and did a nice job.

Speaker 15 (02:18:25):
Went back to the dead parents progressions last year. Obviously
he had that touchdown interceptionation with it was the same.
Was there any coaching to kind of help him one
with that? And because it seems like there was a
few plays on Saturday where he kind of hesitated, didn't
hit this guy or is that kind of part of
that equation or is it just him developing into Winnis b.

Speaker 12 (02:18:43):
I think the latter.

Speaker 14 (02:18:43):
And I think that you know, we went from a
sophomore year to his junior year, and typically you see,
you know, from year to year, particularly when you're a
full time starter, you know, you get better. And coach
Beck has helped him get better this year, and Devin's
made a you know, a concerted effort to to you know,
turned those weaknesses that were there last year into strengths,

(02:19:04):
and and so I think it's just a natural progression
of a quarterback getting better.

Speaker 1 (02:19:09):
Coach, how would you assess the defensive line, especially that
particularly the the young freshman and.

Speaker 14 (02:19:14):
Tackles so far really good poo uh pooh pooh. Cephalona
did a really nice job last week. You get about
fifteen twenty snaps, made a couple of plays. Carson Kfusi
the same, but really impressed so far through two games
with our guys that are playing full time, you know Joan.

Speaker 12 (02:19:28):
Alaa and and Aliki Vi Mahi.

Speaker 14 (02:19:30):
Those guys have have done an excellent job clogging up
the middle as well as the ends. I mean, the
whole front seven has been really good. We allowed eighty
something yards last week and sixty five yards the other day,
so both games really strong rush defense, which again I
say it all the time, that's where our defense starts.
That's what it is predicated upon. Is is telling the
other team you're not gonna run the football, at least

(02:19:52):
not effectively.

Speaker 12 (02:19:53):
You wanted to get tho sibs Lord. I'm really happy
with the day.

Speaker 14 (02:19:59):
It was a up in the right direction. I still think,
oh we were done. Oh double question, double question? Okay,
Uh yeah, I think that uh we took a step
forward in that in that regard. Still need more production.

Speaker 12 (02:20:15):
Uh jj.

Speaker 14 (02:20:16):
Buchanan was really under the weather in that game, and
not himself. You know, when he gets back hopefully this week.
And and is himself that that gives us another weapon.
And like I mentioned, uh, Jackson, Benny has got to
become more featured to get that work needs to be
and then going to be.

Speaker 12 (02:20:32):
He's just a regular thing right Atlanta every week?

Speaker 14 (02:20:36):
Yeah, every week, so yeah, any particular requests, but even
had wings maybe.

Speaker 12 (02:20:44):
A kind of messing it. Yeah, Yeah, we appreciate it.

Speaker 3 (02:20:51):
This year.

Speaker 12 (02:20:51):
Yeah from him so far this year exactly that tons
of energy. He loves the game.

Speaker 14 (02:20:56):
Nobody loves football more than John Henry Daily. He's a
he's the same way of practice every day. He's he's
excited about practice. Uh, he's he's upbeat. He's a great
leader for us, and he has really developed over the
course of the last year into a really good player.
And uh you've seen him make I think he's leading
our team in sacks right now. And and uh he's
a guy that has one speed. He's all out every

(02:21:18):
single snap and he's like I said, it's a fun
guy to be around and really has done a great
job for.

Speaker 12 (02:21:25):
Us through the first two weeks of the season this year.

Speaker 2 (02:21:34):
John o'hall had a big game on Saturday.

Speaker 5 (02:21:36):
How have you seen him take the necessary strides to
you know, be that like impact player from you know,
this time last.

Speaker 3 (02:21:43):
Year to now.

Speaker 14 (02:21:44):
Uh, he's doing exactly what we hoped he would do
when we made the move from safety. As you recall,
he was a safety when he first got here. Kept
getting bigger and bigger, and but that didn't surprise us
because we knew he had the frame and when we
recruited him, that was in the back of our mind
was hey, and slide forward and become a really athletic linebacker.

Speaker 12 (02:22:04):
He's done exactly that.

Speaker 14 (02:22:05):
He's exactly where he needs to be Physically, He's two
hundred and thirty pounds, he runs really well, and he's
he's becoming more and more comfortable as the weeks go
by as a linebacker. And he's got good instincts to
begin with, he has really good football instincts. But he
has done a really good job transitioning to that position.
Coach Colton Swan has done a great job of developing him.

(02:22:26):
And you're right, he was our IMBAC player. He's the
player of the week for us in the house last
week against against cal Poly and and that was a
heck of a play he made. You know, we matched
the hand and tipped the ball and kept it alive
and intercept almost scored with it. But but and then
he did a lot of really good things in addition
to that. You know, he's he's his run fits, his
past drops, he's becoming a fine linebacker.

Speaker 12 (02:22:47):
He's got a bright future. Coach.

Speaker 11 (02:22:50):
With the way that recruiting has changed, with the emphasis
now being on the summer recruiting months, how what sort
of what is it like in season now.

Speaker 8 (02:22:59):
Come there to what it was a few years ago?

Speaker 12 (02:23:02):
Good question. It's a lot.

Speaker 14 (02:23:04):
Less visits. In fact, we have zero visits scheduled as
at this point in time. I'm sure we'll come up
with a few during the end season, but as of now,
we have nothing scheduled, and we had shoot sixty fifty
sixty visits in the summertime.

Speaker 12 (02:23:17):
And so it has done a complete transition.

Speaker 14 (02:23:20):
And everybody, not everybody, but ninety eight percent of the
guys are going on the summer visits and making their
decision early. And there's still a few stragglers who changed
their mind late or still haven't made that decision. But
it has really changed. The timing of recruiting is the same.
You know, the official visits are the same. It's just
a different time of the year. And I like it
better now because it doesn't you know, it gets really

(02:23:43):
hectic when you're trying to prepare for a game and
all that and still entertain and have official visits because
that's time consuming as well.

Speaker 15 (02:23:50):
And just clarify the zero visits are official business still correct.

Speaker 12 (02:23:54):
Yeah, you have tons of unofficials.

Speaker 14 (02:23:56):
Yeah, guy's coming to the games each week, but as
far as you know, having the official forty eight hour visit,
and that is right now, there's nobody nobody's schedule.

Speaker 1 (02:24:08):
All right, Monday Night Football, the first Monday Night football
broadcast of the year, comes your way on the other
side of a quick break. It will be the NFL
debut of JJ McCarthy and the head coaching debut of
Ben Johnson as the Bears and the Vikings do battle
Soldier field potential for some inclement weather. Thorn Nystrom joined
us earlier today said he's hearing the field conditions aren't great,

(02:24:30):
but hey, it's Monday Night Football. You can't ask for
much more than that. To culminate what was an awesome
first weekend of pro football. Before we saying, I want
to tell you about my friends at Advanced Window Products
where you can get twenty five hundred dollars off when
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Speaker 2 (02:25:10):
You juice for a little Monday night football action.

Speaker 1 (02:25:12):
I know you're not a fantasy football guy, but final
game of the Pro Football Week one slate.

Speaker 5 (02:25:18):
Yeah, little little divisional rivalry action for us as well.
I don't know that this is going to be all
that entertaining of a matchup, but it might be one
of those football games that just gets a little a
little messy, a little weird, couple young quarterbacks, maybe maybe
some turnovers. As as our guest mentioned earlier, the field

(02:25:40):
conditions might get a little sloppy, so I think it
should be an interesting Monday night football game, whether it's
a good one or not.

Speaker 2 (02:25:47):
Money line minus one twenty.

Speaker 1 (02:25:49):
The Vikings are a slight favorite, even though they're on
the road over under forty three point five for those
of you that are into such things. But bottom line,
NFL is back, and as an NFL guy, cannot wait.
All right, Porter, let's get out of here to make
way for the broadcast of the Bears and the Vikings.
Before we say a good night, what comes our way
On a Tuesday edition of the show.

Speaker 5 (02:26:08):
On a Tuesday edition of The Drive, we will talk
college football. Of course, it'll be all Big twelve. On
a Tuesday, Keith Kelly, the voice of the Cowboys, will
join the program, give us a little insight on Wyoming,
which you know, the two and oh. Maybe not the
competition that you need to see, but two and oh

(02:26:29):
is two and o Quinn MacLean of Summer Sports will
join us for the weekly hit. There, Coach Bill Bush
will join the program. Maybe our smitty of the college
football season. I like that, Coach Bill Bush. And then
we'll get a little eye on bye week with Spencer Linton.
The Kugs are two and oh and statistically maybe the
top defense in the country. Now, I know, I know. Again,

(02:26:52):
competition is one thing, but it's a good start on
the defensive side for the Coogs. We'll talk a little
bit about the offense with Spencer Spencerland.

Speaker 1 (02:27:00):
Yeah, the defense is nasty. Keanu got his first sack
as a BYU Cougar. Jack Kelly is a beast, but
offensively some questions in the red zone against the Stanford defense,
it did look somewhat physical. But talk youtes Tak Cougar's
Talk NFL whatever else comes our way on a Tuesday show,
Hope you join us special thank you today, Thor Nystrom,
Josh for Along, Scott Mitchell, Brian Don Seth any sound
you may have missed from the show website ESPN seven

(02:27:22):
undersports dot com, download our mobile app, take us on
the go. Support our podcast page wherever you get shows
by subscribing, give us a rating and review, say nice things,
give us all the stars.

Speaker 2 (02:27:31):
It helps.

Speaker 1 (02:27:31):
He's Porter on Spence Monday Night. Football comes your way
on the other side of a quick break, so keep
it right here on ESPN seven hundred